Memory problems and the accompanying confusion can have any number of causes. As the elderly population swells with the aging of 77 million baby boomers, Americans will increasingly face the challenge of trying to understand and cope with problems associated with cognitive decline. This informative, user-friendly guide defines the kinds of memory problems that have straightforward explanations and remedies, as well as those that are more complex and ominous. Author Joan Carson Breitung, an expert on the mental health of the elderly, clarifies the difference between normal brain aging and the onset of dementia. Among the important topics included are: * Mild Cognitive Impairment: the two most common causes, treatment, and controversial aspects of this diagnosis * Alzheimer's Disease: risk factors, diagnostic and prevention strategies, current treatments that may slow the disease * Late-Life Depression: its symptoms and causes, its connection with bereavement and substance abuse, treatment options, and why it is under-diagnosed and often untreated * Caregivers: challenges and responsibilities, home care vs. nursing home care or alternative living situations * Dementia: facts about dementia, risk reduction, how memory is affected by aging, protecting and strengthening cognitive performance, reversible and irreversible dementias * Falls: risks and prevention strategies, environmental modification, connection with effects of medication and physical changes of aging, morbidity, and mortality * Advice and Consent: the living will, guardianships and conservatorships, do-not-resuscitate orders, palliative and hospice care A goldmine of useful information, this popular reference work will help anyone facing the cognitive problems associated with aging.