Dementia is basically a term to describe the symptoms of various brain disorders that can result in the progressive loss of brain function.  The most common symptom is that of memory loss others include things such as confusion, loss of sense of time, inability to cope with normal living.  One of the most common disease’s that is a cause of dementia is Alzheimer’s.  For example, in the UK Alzheimer’s disease affects about 417,000 people. 

Most critical illness policies cover both Dementia and Alzheimer’s.  Though in fact, dementia is not a disease but a symptom of one, for example, Alzheimer’s disease.  However, because there are other brain disorders that can result in the symptoms covered by the generic term Dementia.  Dementia is listed, on most critical illness policies, to cover the many disorders that have similar symptoms as it would be impossible to list all dementia related illnesses.  For example, there are over 100 different forms of dementia caused by different diseases.

Most people suffer some loss of memory, confusion etc as they get older just due to the natural death of brain cells as a result of normal ageing.  However, when many brain cells die rapidly due to some cause the result is dementia.  The death of brain cells can be down to numerous conditions and reasons.  The nature of dementia means that it tends to be an age related condition.  So the older you get the greater the risk of developing a form of dementia.  For example, dementia affects one in fourteen people over the age of 14 and one in six over the age of 80.  However, some diseases resulting in dementia are also seen in the younger generation.  For example, there are approximately 15,000 people in the UK under the age of 65 that suffer from Alzheimer’s. Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is another form of dementia, though rare, that is commonly seen in the younger generation.

For an insurance company to pay out on a critical illness cover on any form of dementia a diagnosis has to be made by a Consultant Neurologist, Psychiatrist or Geriatrician.  Due to the nature of dementia this can make claiming a lengthy process.  Unlike other illnesses such as Cancer, Heart Attack, Stroke etc. where physical symptoms are present aiding diagnosis this is not always the case in most forms of dementia.  Blood tests and brain scans can sometimes be useful.  However, normally in most cases diagnosis is made using various assessments of symptoms and the use of questionnaires that test the ability of the individual to remember certain facts.  It is this diagnostic stage that can result in the delay in an insurance company paying an insured their critical illness cover.  The insured requires the evidence that there is permanent clinical loss of the ability to do the following things;