Are vascular dementia and alzheimer's basically the same disease or at least have the same symptoms?

Different causes: As the name implies, vascular dementia results from diseased blood vessels. Small strokes can kill off regions of the brain, leading to dementia. The cause of alzheimer's is not entirely understood, but involves the accumulation of amyloid in the cells; it is not a vascular problem. Vascular dementia is more variable, but its symptoms can be very similar to alzheimer's.

Similar: Vd and ad have nearly identical risk factors. Many people have both illnesses. Current treatments are identical. However, one can have eiither type of dementia alone. Problems in VD are very dependent on where the damage is while ad has a relatively predictable pattern of deficits as the there are specific brain areas affected.

Somewhat : The typical course of alzheimers is slow and insidious with global deficits across several realms of coh=gnition; the typical course of vascular dementia is to be atypical and varies more dramatically from person to person with a stepwise and less gradual progression, as well as more isolated deficits in various cognitive realms...