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The diagnostic criteria are used by clinicians --
geriatricians, neurologists, psychiatrists -- to help ascertain who
might have Alzheimer's disease or other dementias
or mild cognitive impairment, which is like a pre-Alzheimer’s condition.
The present guidelines were first formulated in 1984
and had not been revised since then.
There has been much research in science since then that has given us new insights
into what's happening in the brain, so we needed to incorporate the new
knowledge in the new guidelines.
The changes are minor but important.
We now recognize that
memory loss is not the only thing that can lead to, or be the diagnostic criteria
for Alzheimer's disease but it could be other cognitive functions like
attention,
confusion,
spatial orientation, getting lost in the environment, and so forth. We also now
recognize that Alzheimer's doesn't always occur alone. It could be
along with other kinds of dementias or other changes in the brain
that weren't addressed in the old guidelines.
Doctors will continue to treat patients much like they have in the past
because there are no new drugs yet.
However, they will be more aware of earlier changes and the possibility that
other diseases are contributing to the
problems the patient may be having,
one of them being mild cognitive impairment, or MCI,
which can occur before dementia. It was well-known to
the research community but the knowledge is now going to be more available
to the general community.
These guidelines are going to have a terrific impact, or a big impact, on
research,
mainly because it's a paradigm shift of looking much earlier before
symptoms occur in Alzheimer’s and using biomarkers to identify those people who
might be at risk for
developing symptoms later.
So, the
earlier we can identify people like that, then research on treatment
can start to treat people in these earlier stages.