Non-Alzheimer dementias

The past decade has seen a considerable resurgence of interest in non-Alzhe imer forms of neurodegenerative dementia. Advances in our understanding and classification of these conditions have taken place over a diverse range o f disciplines: from genetics and immunohistochemistry to neuropsychology an d psychiatry. The aim of this article is to review, from a clinician's pers pective, our current understanding of the major degenerative dementias that fall into the differential diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. The clinical variants of frontotemporal dementia (semantic dementia, progressive nonflue nt aphasia, and dementia of a frontal type), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis associated dementia, corticobasal degeneration, and dementia with Lewy bodi es are considered.