Chronic brain disease: an overview

The author discusses the current state of clinical and pathological knowledge regarding chronic brain disease, focusing particularly on the dementias. His review of clinical studies deals with diagnostic issues and methods, etiology, and treatment. More basic research on brain alterations with aging, their relation to clinical manifestations of dementia, and studies of specific disorders are also reviewed. These disorders have been receiving increasing attention from psychiatrists, who are becoming more aware of the importance of organic cerebral factors in their patients' complaints. The need to understand the chronic brain diseases and their appropriate diagnosis and treatment will continue to grow as the proportion of older individuals in our society increases.