Vascular dementia is the second most common type of dementia after AD. Often
caused by a stroke or brain injury of some type and also often caused by
advanced atherosclerosis. You need a workup by a good neurologist or
gerontologist to figure out for sure what disease process is present.  My
MIL had severe temporal arteritis in early 1990s and probably had
micro-strokes during this period of time. While she had some memory deficits
before the TA, afterwards it was all down hill and there was no ability left
to learn even simple new things. She now has zero short term memory except
for knowing her kids and myself.  The good thing is that we usually have
much less agitation than what I read is typical for many AD patients that I
read about. That is not to say that she does not have bad days - yesterday
was one - but she does not have hallucinations or the extreme behaviors
often typical of people with advanced AD. She's had dementia now for 15
years or so. She is more physically healthy than she was 15 years ago when
she was trying to live on her own. Amazing what a vitamins and regular meals
will do when coupled with 24 hr caregiving.

http://memory.ucsf.edu/Education/Disease/vad.html

We gave my MIL aricept and exelon and one other drug but decided the
benefits (limited memory improvement) were not worth all the physical
problems they caused my MIL. She quits eating and drinking and goes to bed
when she does not feel well (whatever the cause) so when these meds upset
her stomach she was much harder to deal with than when she was unmedicated.
She already had advanced dementia so the gains were not worth the losses.
Your mileage may vary so you might just need to experiment with the various
AD drugs. Never get your medical advice from the radio. All drugs are made
to profit drug companies - that is not a secret. Whether or not they help
your husband will be an individual thing and many people on this list have
reported widely varying results from the various AD drugs.    AW

Depends on what the "person on the radio" had to say about Aricept and
Namenda.  They are not cures, and never pretended to be.  They do,
individually, slow the progress of Alzheimer's (sorry, don't know about
vascular dementia - the Dowager has Alzheimer's).  They work even better
in combination.  And if you only knew how hard and how long those of us
with loved ones suffering from Alzherimer's worked and petititioned the
Feds to *approve* Namenda (studied and released first in Europe as
"mementine")!....

Blessed be,
Baird

I'm sure that my mother has vascular dementia.   Mainly because she has had
dementia for nearly 14 years.   She still knows all her relatives and
doesn't have any  problems with hallucinations or agitation.   She's like a
4 year old child.  She does well in independent assisted living with my
brother and myself checking in on her a few times a week.   She has no short
term memory unless it's something dramatic (like a death in the family or
someone new visiting her).   Doctor's just put the label Alzheimer's on her
until I remind them that she has had dementia for so many years.   When she
was first diagnosed in '93, she had all kinds of tests but nothing much
recently because things change extremely slowly with her.   She needs no
medication and Aricept only made her sick and it didn't seem to change her
whether she took it or not.  It's only because of this group that I figure
she has vascular dementia.   If I thought for an instant that it would make
a difference in  her life to get a definite diagnosis I would take her to a
neurologist.  What's the point now?   She doesn't suffer.   She can still
enjoy what little quality of life she has.   Her grandkids, cards, bingo and
friends who she can't remember their names.  Not the life anybody would want
but I know it could be much worse......June