Dementia vs Depression

These two diagnoses can occur together. They can also be misdiagnosed for each other. Depression presents as low energy, poor appetite, generalized pain, may have accompanying anxiety, and are aware of memory difficulties. Dementia patients have a lot of energy, but they say one thing and do another. They may describe to you what they are supp0sed to do regarding safety, but then do the complete opposite. There's a huge difference between their cognition (WHAT they know) and executive functions (What they do with what they know). I'll be describing executive functions in future blog posts.