I just found a fabulous article about how doctors DO NOT DO A GOOD JOB OF RECOGNIZING DEMENTIA. I put the direct link up on the home page - www.thealzheimerspouse.com - under the Breaking News Section. Please check it out.
My husband''s PCP did not believe us when we told him something was wrong. He said he just had a vitamin deficiency. As it happens, he did, and the dr. put him on some meds for that. But, it took my daughters and I pushing at him to get him some testing before he finally listened. Of course, this dr. was a new doctor and didn't really know my husband very well. But, his previous doctor did and no matter how many times I told him something was wrong, he didn't notice it and did not really listen to me
The slowness to recognize dementia is (as far as our experience went) compounded when the person is of a "young" age. It took us about 2+ years of seeing a neuro, a psychiatrist, a geriatric specialist, an infectious disease specialist, and finally another neuro, before we got diagnosed properly and sent for the confirming lab tests.
We changed primary care doctors several months after DH had been diagnosed by a neurologist. Recently, he said he doesn't think DH "presents" as an Alz patient and asked if we would be willing to go for more comprehensive neurological testing in Jackson, TN (an hour away). DH said he would go and I decided one more opinion wouldn't hurt and may at least convince PCP. His appt. is 2/18. That article was right on the money!
My husband's family doctor decided to send my husband to a cognitive therapist for his "evaluation." There was a possibility that what he had was a treatable result of a stroke-like event and I think he knew that no one can fool an experienced cognitive therapist. She was the one who told the family doctor what kind of neurologist my husband needed for a diagnosis. We went where she pointed and got a diagnosis pretty easily.
Of course, for a small city - semi rural area, we have a world class rehab hospital, that does full day outpatient and inpatient therapy for stroke victims. If it had turned out that he could be treated, he was already in the right place to get that done.
One more thing. The mini-mental is so easy to give that it ought to be given by the medical assistant at your family doctor's office to everyone over the age of 40. That would provide a baseline when the test gets given to someone who isn't acting quite right. The other tests described in the article sound a lot more useful, but may be too hard to be given by a semi-pro to everyone.
We were lucky. We live in a very small isolated town but our PCP diagnosed it right away and sent us to a bigger city for our lab work. Our only problem was after-care. As the AD progressed our PCP was reluctant to prescribe to needed medicine, leading to a melt down on DH part. He had to be placed in a AF. They have had trouble getting his meds adjusted.