Alzheimer Disease
16, Jul 2018
Prelims level : Health
Mains level :
For The First time a drug was able to reduce the Plaques the brain of Patients and slow the progression of Dementia.
Alzheimer’s versus dementia:
- Dementia is an umbrella term for a range of conditions that involve a loss of cognitive functioning.
- Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia. It involves plaques and tangles forming in the brain. Symptoms start gradually and are most likely to include a decline in cognitive function and language ability.
- Other types of dementia include Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. People can have more than one type of dementia.
Symptoms:
- Reduced ability to take in and remember new information
- Impairments to reasoning, complex tasking, and exercising judgment
- Impaired visuospatial abilities that are not, for example, due to eye sight problems
- Impaired speaking, reading and writing Changes in personality and behavior
Stages:
The progression of Alzheimer’s can be broken down into three main stages:
- Preclinical, before symptoms appear
- Mild cognitive impairment, when symptoms are mild
- Dementia
Fast facts on Alzheimer’s disease
- Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia.
- It happens when plaques containing beta amyloid form in the brain.
- As symptoms worsen, it becomes harder for people to remember recent events, to reason, and to recognize people they know.
- Eventually, a person with Alzheimer’s is likely to need full-time assistance.
Treatment:
- There is no known cure for Alzheimer’s. The death of brain cells cannot be reversed.
However, there are therapeutic interventions that can make it easier for people to live with the disease