New study indicates dementia signs can be detected nearly a decade before diagnosis
New study indicates dementia signs can be detected nearly a decade before diagnosis
Cognitive decline is one of the most common, disabling and expensive conditions of the elderly. Researchers now report that, once dementia is diagnosed accurately, about 10% of affected individuals can have their condition detected early enough to avoid or postpone the need for expensive or invasive therapies.
“These findings suggest that there is a window of opportunity between the time that a diagnosis is obtained and the time when treatment becomes necessary,” said the researchers, who include researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and the University of California, Los Angeles. “If this is true, then early intervention for Alzheimer’s disease could save hundreds of millions of dollars in health care costs and avoid many invasive treatments that are being considered for this group of patients.”
The findings, reported in the journal Nature Neurology, were presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.
Dementia is a disorder that affects the brain so severely that problems in memory, thinking or behavior become problematic. The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that there will be about 35 million people living with dementia in the United States by 2050. With such a large and growing population, the need for accurate and timely identification of the disease becomes critical.
The study is the first of three that will be presented at the upcoming Alzheimer’s Global Summit, which is being held at the University of California, San Francisco.
The research team followed more than 100 older adults with mild dementia across one year. All participants — including 70 with Alzheimer’s disease and 44 with mixed Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal dementia — underwent two rounds of clinical diagnostic testing to determine whether or not they had the disorder.
“The question was: Can a person with suspected advanced dementia be diagnosed early enough to avoid the need for invasive diagnostic tests