A mental/behaviourial disorder is a disorder in the brain which affects personality, behaviour, thinking or emotional life (ICD-10 codes: F00-F99). The majority of the ICD-10 blocks in the statistics on death causes are formed by demential syndrome (in short form dementia). People die from the consequences of dementia, e.g. stopping intake of food or drink, swallowing difficulties or infections because in advanced dementia, brainstem reflexes such as swallowing, breathing (reduced continuation of breathing, resulting in pneumonia) or the bladder reflex (with incontinence as a result) no longer function properly. Therefore, statistics on death causes consider dementia to be the underlying cause of death. Back to article