Hi, my name is Christina and my mother wants to go into independant living and my siblings are trying to have her diagnosed with dementia/ alzheimers so she will not be accepted under their guidlines. What is the differance between dementia and alzheimers and why would the neurologist precribe her donepezil?
Dementia is the broader category under which Alzheimer's Disease falls in as a subtype.  In other words, there are many forms of Dementia.  One of them is Alzheimer's disease. Another way to put it is- All people who are diagnosed with Alzheimer's can be said to possess dementia or be demented.  However, NOT ALL people with a cementing illness or some form of dementia will turn out to have Alzheimer's.  Get the difference? Anyways, if this answer to your question helped in some small measure would you do me the favor of giving some written feedback and a STAR RATING. Also, I'm a neurologist so if you'd like to also ask me additional questions about dementia or AD we can go through a few more things if you'd visit me at