Writing About Alzheimer's and Dementia Gets Complicated

Author(s)
Published on
May 26, 2011

Laura Newman, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, Reporting on HealthNow that I have spent three days listening to expert neurologists, demographers, caregivers, and policy people talk about Alzheimer's, I come away from the meeting with a sense that the story is complicated, and that I hope it is not reduced to talking points and sound bites. I didn't feel that it was at the meeting, but I can see how reporting could go awry, and not really help readers or society out.

I don't want to cover Alzheimer's disease pursuing the "awareness" route, namely pressing how many millions of Americans have the disease, and how unabated, with the graying of America, these numbers will rise astronomically. There is no cure for Alzheimer's disease. Existing drugs are not all that beneficial, and when they help alleviate symptoms, it seems to be for a very brief window, in a subset of patients, that nobody has convinced me you can predict. Are we at square one? Should we grab at any way to mobilize the troops for the disease?

There's more negative news: clinical trials for years have been negative and clinical trial enrollment is poor. Can it be improved? Should I promote enrollment in clinical trials? What might a patient gain from participating in a clinical trial? What about informed consent? How do patients with Alzheimer's disease give informed consent?

Is using amyloid as a biomarker something that should be abandoned because reductions in amyloid have not shown improvements in the disease? What is the state of the science?

What about labeling patients with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer's? Is mild cognitive impairment an entity that is meaningful, or should it be discarded? Some speakers at the Alzheimer's disease forum were skeptical about the classification, which is not used in many parts of the world. Will mini-screens being in primary care offices become popular because experts and advocacy groups say that they will reduce stigma and work effectively? Under what conditions, could Alzheimer's disease be overdiagnosed? Remember, older people are on many medicines, they can have electrolyte problems, hearing problems, and other conditions that could impact on diagnosis.

What kinds of protections are in place for people? There is a big push by pharma and the Alzheimer's Association to be certain to record an Alzheimer's disease diagnosis in a medical record. That may seem relatively innocuous for old, retired people, but could some people lose jobs, lose health and long term care benefits, be barred from housing? What is the upside to getting a higher count of Alzheimer's patients? Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

I also think that battles over Medicare need to be discussed with the possibility that many more Americans are likely to be afflicted with Alzheimer's. Where will they get care? How do Americans want it to look? Will Alzheimer's patients be warehoused? Can community programs manage people with end-stage Alzheimer's?

Should innovative non-drug approaches in the arts be funded more widely? How can we reduce stigma about Alzheimer's disease? I'd like to know a lot more about what is happening today to people with advanced Alzheimer's disease. Can they find placements? Where? What are equitable ways to fund Alzheimer's and dementia care?

Long Term Care

How should the country support long-term care? Should children be taught, as they are in lower school, in some parts of Japan, about caregiving, dementia, and Alzheimer's? What about minorities, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people with Alzheimer's? What about aging single people, who are all over America, and growing around the world? What services are available for them? How will we plan for them?

Alzheimer's disease issues do not exist in a vacuum.

People should be aware of all of these issues, as people think through a national plan for Alzheimer's disease and think through federal and state policy. I am intrigued that some countries have national plans for Alzheimer's and I hope to write about them. Perhaps they will be instructive for the US. Far more patient stories need to be told to understand the complexities.

You can read more of my posts at my blog Patient POV.

Photo credit: Vince Alongi via Flickr