Alzheimer’s: attention to repetitive forgetting and memory loss

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Extract from the article: Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects Togolese. Hospital studies have shown that vascular dementia, the leading cause of dementia followed by Alzheimer’s disease, estimated the prevalence at 10.89%. Rare before age 65, it is mainly

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Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects Togolese. Hospital studies have shown that vascular dementia, the leading cause of dementia followed by Alzheimer’s disease, estimated the prevalence at 10.89%. Rare before age 65, it is mainly manifested by memory loss. To diagnose it it is necessary to consult a neurologist, who will make a first «memory consultation». The diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is based on a very precise clinical presentation, which must be made with a neurologist.

Schematically, when a patient complains about his memory, it is not Alzheimer’s disease, but more likely mild forgetfulness. Everyone complains about his memory. On the contrary, a real patient does not complain. Indeed, he does not realize that he is sick. It’s called anosognosia, which is something they don’t realize they have.

Moreover, memory loss alone does not diagnose the disease. The patient may have associated disorders: language difficulties (forgetting proper names regularly) or visual perception disorders (difficulty to recognize faces). Other patients have difficulty with everyday gestures (poor coordination), or have emotional disorders (irritability, aggression).

As this is a neurodegenerative disease, the diagnosis is made in two stages. In a first consultation, these symptoms are seen in patients. But only the worsening of these clinical manifestations, observed during a second interview, allows to suspect a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. The latter is then confirmed through neuropsychological tests (memory, language, intellectual strategy) and examinations, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Is there a cure for Alzheimer’s disease?

Unfortunately, there is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease. However, the symptoms of the disease can be improved. For example, there are drugs that can improve memory a little or psychiatric drugs that are useful when patients are aggressive, anxious or depressed.

Non-medicinal management can also help patients by slowing the progression of the disease and/or reducing the impact of the disease on the daily life of the patient.. It consists, first of all, in listening to them and making them speak. The purpose of this treatment is to relieve the suffering. For example, for people who lose language and search for their words, they can be made to sing songs from their childhood or learn words from new songs.

Any hope of ever finding a cure for this pathology?

Yes and no. For 30 or 40 years, many teams have been trying to find preventive or curative treatments for the disease. And this without results, for four reasons. First, the brain is an extremely complicated organ: in a cubic millimeter of brain tissue, there are nearly a billion nerve connections. Second, there is not only one Alzheimer’s disease but there are many different clinical outcomes. Some forms start with language disorders, others with perception, or with character disorders. Third, the goal would be to diagnose the disease as soon as possible so that treatment is effective. But for the moment the diagnosis is often late: three four years on average after the first symptoms. Finally, with the multitude of forms of the disease, one should certainly expect to find a cure for one form of the disease. At present, there are treatments still in the trial phase.

William O.

Article validated by Adiel Lotri, Occupational therapist in mental health, graduate of the Université Claude Bernard de Lyon (France)