* Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disease of unknown cause that leads to dementia.
* Most patients with Alzheimer’s disease are over 65 years of age.
* There are 10 classic warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease: memory loss, difficulty performing familiar tasks, problems with language, disorientation to time and place, poor or decreased judgment, problems with abstract thinking, misplacing things, changes in mood or behavior, changes in personality, and loss of initiative.
* Patients with symptoms of dementia should be thoroughly evaluated before they become inappropriately or negligently labeled Alzheimer’s disease.
* Although there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, treatments are available to alleviate many of the symptoms that cause suffering.
* The management of Alzheimer’s disease consists of medication based and non-medication based treatments organized to care for the patient and family. Treatments aimed at changing the underlying course of the disease (delaying or reversing the progression) have so far been largely unsuccessful. Medicines that restore the defect, or malfunctioning, in the chemical messengers of the nerve cells have been shown to improve symptoms. Finally, medications are available that deal with the psychiatric manifestations of Alzheimer’s disease.
Reference: Alzheimer’s Association
Last Editorial Review: 7/17/2007
