Juvenile Degenerative Dementia: Epidemiological And Etiological Profile At The University Hospital Of Casablanca Over Ten Years

Introduction. - Dementia is an acquired phenomenon represented by a progressive decline in one or more cognitive functions and resounding on the daily life of impacting the patient's daily activities. Dementia is not confined to the elderly, since juvenile dementia exists and is defined by the appearance of symptoms before the age of 65 years. It is a real diagnostic challenge because of atypical clinical features and can be attributed to treatable diseases.Methods. - Our objective was to describe the epidemiological and etiological profile of juvenile degenerative dementias in the neurology department of the University Hospital of Casablanca over a period of 10 years through a series of cases, adopting the schema of a descriptive cross-sectional study.Results. - Juvenile dementia accounted for 35.5% of all degenerative dementias. The mean age was 53.27 +/- 7.56 years with a male predominance (56.3%). Those out of school accounted for 35.9%. We found cardiovascular risk factors and a family history of dementia in 29.7%. In 82% of cases, patients progressively installed symptoms and progressed rapidly (< 1 year) to dementia (19% of cases). The etiologies were dominated by: Alzheimer's disease (45% of cases), Frontal-temporal degeneration (22% of cases), Huntington's disease (16% of cases). The bivariate analysis had not found a statistically significant association between the demographic factors of our patients and the development of dementia except for age.Conclusion. - The prevalence of juvenile dementia varies between 6.9% and 10.8%. Etiologies are multiple dominated by degenerative diseases and especially Alzheimer's disease in 70% of cases, joining our data. The dementia of the young subject poses real problems in the diagnostic and therapeutic approach. It is a crucial public health priority that requires standardized care to improve the diagnosis and implementation of an appropriate social assistance plan. (C) 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.