Dementia Basics: Types and Mechanisms

As Trump surges his Gestapo and threatens to annex new territory, his brain is collapsing. He’s sundowning on Truth Social, nodding off in meetings, slurring words, slurping at the saliva pooling in his mouth. His insults and aggressions are as constant and predictable as his arms are, reaching out for handholds.

Up until this point, discourse on the mental health of this decrepit fascist leader has used the kid gloves of psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychiatry, in which even the most informed analyses were constrained by the fact that experts were interpreting his inner states. For our part, we’ve compared his fate to that of charismatic cult leaders at the end of the line—and we’ll do more of that today.

Now a new posse of clinical commentators on IG and TikTok have made it all much more biological: we are witnessing, they say, the predictable signs of fast-progressing dementia.

Show Notes

Goldwater Rule vs Duty to Warn, American Academy of Psychiatry and Law

World Health Organization: Dementia

Signs and Symptoms of Dementia

Alzheimer's disease: a comprehensive review of epidemiology, risk factors, symptoms diagnosis, management, caregiving, advanced treatments and associated challenges

USC study finds new evidence linking dementia to problems with the brain’s waste clearance system

A new drug could stop Alzheimer’s before memory loss begins

A 2025 update on treatment strategies for the Alzheimer’s disease spectrum

Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission

Broadening dementia risk models: building on the 2024 Lancet Commission report for a more inclusive global framework

Study finds disparities in diagnosis and treatment of dementia

Decomposing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Risk and Protective Factors of Dementia in the U.S.

Mapping racial and ethnic healthcare disparities for persons living with dementia: A scoping review

Dementia Diagnosis Disparities by Race and Ethnicity

Racial disparities in dementia determined by social factors

Straight-forward Explainer: What’s Going on With NIH Cuts to Alzheimer’s Research?

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