She Was Different

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Alzheimer's or another form of dementia?

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As Alzheimer's disease progresses, people can have more difficulty communicating, get lost in places they know well and have poor judgement in social situations, Tarawneh said. People can also experience behavioral changes — such as agitation, irritability, episodes of wandering, hallucinations and delusions — as the disease progresses, she said.

Buta lot of these symptoms are also common in other types of dementia. So, what makes different dementias, well, different? It comes down to what's happening in the brain. A hallmark of Alzheimer's disease that distinguishes it from other forms of dementia is an increase in a type of protein called amyloid in the brain.

One of the first biological changes to occur in the brain of a person with Alzheimer's is the buildup of clumps of these proteins, called amyloid plaques , between neurons, which hinders their function. Another characteristic of Alzheimer's disease is a buildup of a different protein, called tau. The buildup of both types of protein leads to neurodegeneration, or brain-cell death. But unlike amyloid plaques, tau buildup and neurodegeneration aren't unique to Alzheimer's disease; they can also occur in other forms of dementia, said Rebecca Edelmayer, the director of scientific engagement at the Alzheimer's Association.

This is why "it can be difficult, sometimes, to determine [what form of dementia a person has] based on cognitive testing and symptoms alone," she said.

Indeed, dementia diagnoses remain a bit shaky. There are "a number of people who get told they have Alzheimer's but they don't actually have it," Edelmayer told Live Science. To make matters more confusing, many people don't have "pure" Alzheimer's disease or a "pure" other form of dementia, but rather, a mixture of different dementias, Edelmayer said.

These can include vascular dementia, which affects the blood vessels in the brain, and Lewy body dementia , which is characterized by the buildup of yet another type of protein in the brain. Biomarkers are biological changes in the brain, such as an increase in amyloid plaques, that can determine the presence of a disease.