It has been reported that some patients have been misdiagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, when in fact the correct diagnosis in their specific case was Dementia With Lewy Bodies.
Dementia with Lewy body formation is a term used by doctors to describe general decreases in memory and decline in cognitive ability that impacts daily life. It causes protein deposits to develop in nerve cells in the regions of the brain responsible for thinking, memory and movement. This is a progressive neurological disorder and it causes the cells of the brain to shrink and die. But dementia does not always mean Alzheimer’s and there is no test to determine if someone has dementia besides a thorough medical history and ruling out other diseases that can cause dementia. As these symptoms are fairly hard to determine the severity of doctors can easily misdiagnose dementia and one of these diseases whose symptoms often mimic it. Including depression, urinary tract infections that spread to the kidneys, thyroid disease, untreated diabetes, Lyme disease from a tick bite, Vitamin B12 deficiency.