What do you understand by Alzheimer’s disease?

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative disease that attacks the brain and results in impaired memory, thinking and behavior. It is the most form of primary dementia.

It affects 1 in 10 people over age group of 65 and nearly half of all the people aged 85 year and over. It has been estimated that more than one lakh people die of Alzheimer’s disease annually which makes it the fourth leading cause of death in adults after heart disease, cancer and stroke.

Person suffering from Alzheimer’s disease has following symptoms. Such as:

(i) Loss of memory

(ii) Difficulty in performing familiar tasks

(iii) Problems with language

(iv) Disorientation to time and place

(v) Poor or decreased judgment problems with abstract thinking

(vi) Misplacing things

(vii) Change in mood and behaviour

(viii) Changes in personality

(ix) Loss of initiative

For testing of Alzheimer’s disease Center- Paired Associated Learning test has been invented by Dr. Bartara Sahakian and Professor Jrevor Robbins which detects this disease with 98% accuracy. This test also distinguishes Alzheimer’s sufferers from patients with depression and people without any neuron psychiatric disorder. This test is useful not only for early detection of Alzheimer’s but could also be used to measure the beneficial effects of current pharmacy ecological treatment such as cholinesterase inhibitors as well as future drugs including neuroprotective agents. The test’s sensitivity to Alzheimer’s disease is also related to the fact that the areas in the brain first affected are those utilised when performing the test.

So for there is no medicine available to cure this deadly disease and consequently person suffering from this disease have no way to save him.