Pathology and Current Treatment of the Alzheimers Disease Essay

Pathology and Current Treatment of the Alzheimer's Disease Introduction One of the most feared aspects of aging is the deterioration of the memory and cognitive function (dementia) that occurs among the elderly with increasing frequency with advancing years. A significant proportion of otherwise healthy elderly persons show a significant decline in mental function later in life. It has been estimated that 10% of the population over the age of 65 suffers from mild to moderate dementia and 4-5% suffer from severe dementia. The incidence of severe dementia rises from less than 1% at ages 65 to 70 to over 15% by age 85 (Terry and Katzman, 1983). In the United States alone, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which is the major cause of senile dementia, afflicts several million people, and with the increasing longevity of the population, the number of such patients requiring complete and continuous institutional care will rise to epidemic proportions. This paper will attempt to describe the Alzheimer's Disease condition, both behaviorally and neuropathologically , and then look at traditional and current methods of treatment for patients of Alzheimer's Disease. The onset of senile dementia is characterized by increasing impairment of memory of recent events such as what a patient had for breakfast an hour earlier, though a detailed recall of the distant past may be essentially intact. Inevitably, the patients lose their cognitive abilities, that is, their abilities to read, write, calculate, and use language appropriately; they cannot feed or dress themselves, they do not recognize their own families, they get lost when only a short distance from home, and ultimately do not even know their own names (R. Perry et al., 2000, C.J.A. Mouli... ...minimal and mild) Alzheimer's Disease: relationship to episodic and semantic memory impairment, Neuropsychologia, 38:3, 2000, p. 252-271 Prasad, K.N., Hovland, A.R., Cole, W.C., Prasad, K.C., Nahreini, P., Edwards-Prasad, J., Andreatta, C.P. Multiple antioxidants in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's Disease: Analysis of biochemical rationale, Clinical Neuropharmacology, 23:1, 2000, p. 2-13 Roses, A.D. Apolipoprotein E affects the rate of Alzheimer's Disease expression: b -amyloid burden is a secondary consequence dependent on apoE genotype and duration of disease, J. Neuropathol. Exp. Neurol, 53, 1994, p. 429-437 Terry, R.D., Katzman, R. Senile dementia of the Alzheimer’s type, Ann. Neurol., 14, 1983, p. 497-506 van Leuven, F. Single and multiple transgenic mice as models for Alzheimer's Disease, Progress in Neurobiology, 61:3, 2000, p. 305-312