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Challenges to Studying Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease is not a normal part of aging and is not something that happens to you later in life no matter what. Alzheimer's disease is a complex devastating disease of the mind that affects over 5.3 million people according to the Alzheimer's Association.
Today, many thousands of scientists, voluntary organizations and healthcare professionals are studying Alzheimer's disease so that they can find ways to manage, treat and one day prevent this terrible disease. The process of studying this disease is challenging for a number of reasons.

  1. Alzheimer's Disease

    • Alzheimer's disease is a progressive disease of the brain. Its main feature is that short term memory is impaired. Eventually there are problems with planning, reasoning, perception and/or language. This happens because of brain cell death and accompanying brain shrinkage.

    Early Diagnosos

    • Early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease is helpful for several reasons. Having an early diagnosis and starting treatment in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease can help prevent loss of brain function for months or even years. The underlying process of Alzheimer's disease process cannot be changed. An early diagnosis helps victims and their families develop support networks, take care of legal and financial matters, plan for the future and make living arrangements. Alsom an early diagnosis gives the victim of Alzheimer's disease greater opportunity to get involved with clinical trials for medications that may help combat Alzheimer's disease. Despite all the advantages to early diagnosis, many people live for as long as possible before they go to a doctor. This makes it difficult to study Alzheimer's disease.

    Variation Of Symptoms

    • Just about everyone who has Alzheimer's disease has short term memory loss. What happens next varies from one individual to the next.

      Some people may have trouble with their speech. Some can understand what you say, but cannot tell you what they want to say, Some may have difficulty finding the right word to use. Inappropriate behavior may be displayed in some people with Alzheimer's disease. A number of people with the disease have trouble with abstract thinking. Others have poor judgment. Some persons with Alzheimer's disease can no longer perform familiar tasks. A number of people with Alzheimer's disease do not know what day or year it is. Some persons have many of these symptoms. Some only display a few. Eventually, all cannot take care of themselves. The challenge in studying Alzheimer's disease is to delay the later stages as long as possible. Because so many of those with Alzheimer's have so many different symptoms, this process is difficult. Also the time it takes for someone to become unable to care for himself varies greatly. Sometimes it is hard to know if it is the treatment or the natural progression of Alzheimer's disease that is affecting its victims..

    Cost

    • It is costly to study Alzheimer's disease. According to the Alzheimer's Association, the federal government now spends about 640 million dollars a year on Alzheimer's research.

    Flaws

    • According to a recent article the name of which is "Improving Drug Trials for Mild to Moderate Alzheimer's Disease"in the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences from March 2007 by David B. Hogan, over the last two decades, numerous studies have been conducted on subjects with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. Concerns have been raised about them because of the focus on statistics rather than clinical significance.

      According to information at the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, although published research suggests certain drugs should be effective in treating Alzheimer's disease, this may not be the case in actual patient care. Many of the early research trials used only a small numbers of patients, and study designs seem to have had some flaws.

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