"The Alarming Impact of Alzheimer's Disease on Society"

By Yusuf G Kader

History

Histories The physicians and philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome linked growing dementia to getting older. Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist, first identified the first case of Alzheimer's disease in a fifty-year-old woman he dubbed Auguste D. He followed her case until she died in 1906, when he made his first public report on it. In the medical literature over the next five years, eleven cases that were similar to this one were reported, some of which had already been referred to as Alzheimer's disease. After suppressing some of Auguste D's clinical (delusions and hallucinations) and pathological (arteriosclerotic changes) features, Emil Kraepelin first described the condition as distinct. He included Alzheimer's disease, which Kraepelin also referred to as presenile dementia, as a subtype of senile dementia in the eighth edition of his Textbook of Psychiatry, which was published on July 15, 1910.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Yusuf G Kader
• Release date: Jan 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215755617

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History

Histories The physicians and philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome linked growing dementia to getting older. Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist, first identified the first case of Alzheimer's disease in a fifty-year-old woman he dubbed Auguste D. He followed her case until she died in 1906, when he made his first public report on it. In the medical literature over the next five years, eleven cases that were similar to this one were reported, some of which had already been referred to as Alzheimer's disease. After suppressing some of Auguste D's clinical (delusions and hallucinations) and pathological (arteriosclerotic changes) features, Emil Kraepelin first described the condition as distinct. He included Alzheimer's disease, which Kraepelin also referred to as presenile dementia, as a subtype of senile dementia in the eighth edition of his Textbook of Psychiatry, which was published on July 15, 1910.

For the majority of the 20th century, people between the ages of 45 and 65 who showed signs of dementia were only given the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. After a conference on Alzheimer's disease in 1977 came to the conclusion that the clinical and pathological manifestations of pre senile and senile dementia were nearly identical, the terminology changed. However, the authors added that this did not completely rule out the possibility that they had distinct causes.

THIS EVENTUALLY RESULTED in an age-independent diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. For a while, the term senile dementia of the Alzheimer type (SDAT) was used to describe the condition in people over the age of 65, while classical Alzheimer's disease was used to describe the condition in younger people. In the end, the medical term Alzheimer's disease was officially used to describe people of all ages with a common symptom pattern, course of the disease, and neuropathology.

The most widely used NINCDS-ADRDA Alzheimer's Criteria for diagnosis were established in 1984 by the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke (NINCDS) and the Alzheimer's disease and Related Disorders Association (ADRDA), which is now known as the Alzheimer's Association. In 2007, they underwent extensive revisions. For a clinical diagnosis of possible or probable Alzheimer's disease, these criteria require that neuropsychological testing confirm the presence of cognitive impairment and a suspected dementia syndrome. A microscopic examination of brain tissue and a histopathology confirmation are required for a definitive diagnosis. Between the definitive histopathological confirmation and the diagnostic criteria, good statistical reliability and validity have been demonstrated.

"Alzheimer's Disease: