According to The New York Times, “more than 100 medical conditions can resemble Alzheimer’s disease, and about 20 percent of people who are told they have the illness are found upon further examination to have frontotemporal dementia, vascular dementia, normal pressure hydrocephalus, Parkinson’s disease or another condition.”
In fact, Dr. Dan Skovronsky, chief executive of Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, which makes a radioactive chemical used in amyloid PET scans that may help detect and diagnose Alzheimer’s disease claims “as many as 40 percent of older adults with cognitive impairment do not have Alzheimer’s disease.”
While medical professionals search for diagnostic tools to detect Alzheimer’s and other cognitive illness as early as possible as well as continue drug trials in search of pharmaceutical treatments designed to fight Alzheimer’s disease, many aging adults and their families are struggling with establishing the correct medical diagnosis and treatment plan for their symptoms.
“Ninety-five percent of older adults have some sort of cognitive complaint, so a lot of people will go to their doctor worried but may be dismissed as normal aging,” according to Katherine Gifford, Psy.D., neuropsychology fellow in the Vanderbilt Memory & Alzheimer’s Center. Gifford recently published her research study, “The source of cognitive complaints predicts diagnostic conversion differentially among nondemented older adults,” in the July 18, 2013 issue of The Journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia and she believes her research results demonstrate that a cognitive complaint should be taken seriously, particularly when a loved one can confirm there are issues with mental ability, such as memory loss. Gifford suggests “further follow-up or referral to a specialist” would be appropriate in such cases.
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