Canadian Study of Health and Aging

Canadian Study of Health and Aging PDF

Author: Christina Wolfson

Publisher: New York : Springer Pub.

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780826114389

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This supplement to the journal, International Psychogeriatrics introduces the Canadian Study of Health and Aging, one of the largest epidemiologic studies of dementia conducted to date. A comprehensive description of the study methods and data sets as well as selected results are discussed.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Senile Dementia

Diagnosis and Treatment of Senile Dementia PDF

Author: Manfred Bergener

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 434

ISBN-13: 3642466583

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Senile dementia is one of the major health problems confronting mankind in this century. To some extent the problem has, of course, always existed. The condition was sufficiently troubling to classical philosophers and jurists to have apparently provoked comments by Solon in approximately 500 B. C. and Plato in the fourth century B. C. (Plutarch 1967 translation; Plato 1921 translation). Medical recognition can be traced at least as far back as the second century A. D. (Adams 1861). However, several factors have converged in this century to extend the absolute dimensions of the problem of senile dementia and to increase societal, medical, and scientific recogni tion of the magnitude of the condition. Perhaps the most important factor relating to the present importance of senile dementia is demographic. Although the human population has been increasing since the mid-eighteenth century, it has only been since the advent of the twentieth century that a decrease in mortality has been noted for those over the age of 45 (McKeown 1976). Consequently, the absolute number of aged persons and the proportion of increasingly aged persons in the populations of the world's industrial nations have been steadily increasing. For example, in the United States, 4% ofthe population was over the age of 65 in 1900. In the 1970 census, this proportion had grown to 10%.

Senile Dementia

Senile Dementia PDF

Author: Bernard Ineichen

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-11-11

Total Pages: 132

ISBN-13: 1489934766

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The concept of dementia has itself been the subject of increasing refinement and precision in definition and diagnosis. Two important sub-types have been identified: Alzheimer's disease and multiple-infarct dementia. Alzheimer's disease or Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type (SDA T), arises out of changes in the brain which are as yet poorly understood and identifiable with certainty only at post mortem examination. This type of dementia has been named after Alois Alzheimer, who first identified these changes, in the earliest years of this century. Alzheimer's is the commonest type of identified dementia. The second commonest type is multi-infarct dementia (MID), which follows a stroke or strokes affecting the relevant part of the brain. Like SDA T, it can be diagnosed with certainty only after death, although Jorm (1987, Ch. 8) reviews progress in using various types of tests which can suggest, if not confirm, its presence during the sufferer's lifetime. As will be shown in Chapter 2, some populations appear to reverse the general picture and exhibit more MID than SDAT. Many dementia sufferers cannot, even after a post-mortem examination, be neatly categorized as one or the other of these sub-types. A considerable uncertain 'grey area' of dementia remains at present very poorly understood. Some elderly people develop dementia as a side-effect of known physical disease. Some of these conditions are curable. Care of the demented person has traditionally taken place in the community: hospitalization is a fairly recent innovation.

Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type

Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer Type PDF

Author: Jörg Traber

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 3642706444

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Society is showing increasing concern for disorders related to aging that lead to a loss of brain function. In view of the enormous proportion of elderly people in our society today, brain aging is more than ever subject to challenge to us all, not only politicians and health authorities, but every individual who is confronted with the difficult situation of watching the mental powers of apparently healthy elderly friends, neighbours, or relatives fail, often with alarming rapidity. This challenge is directed especially toward us scientists. As one of our colleagues succinctly put it 2 years ago at the close of our First International Symposium on Brain Aging: "Do something. We are not dealing here with just another disease; we are concerned with human dignity. " More than any statistics, these words convinced me that Tropon's decision to leave the field of classic CNS pharmacology and move into the field of gerontopsychopharmacology was the right one, even though we knew that success would be uncertain and that, even if it finally comes it will be many years hence. At this point, let me add a personal comment: each one of us is judged by his or her own success. We live in a competitive society where success counts. This applies not only to the businessman, but also to the scientist, in particular, to those in industry.

New Directions in Understanding Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease

New Directions in Understanding Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease PDF

Author: Taher Zandi

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 165

ISBN-13: 1461306655

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The management of Alzheimer's Disease and the related dementias is one of the major challenges to health care professionals and American society-at-large for the coming decade and the coming millennium. The rapid growth of the over-eighty-five population, the group which, as recent studies have confirmed and as many of us clinicians have long suspected, has an even higher prevalence than previously quoted of dementing disorders, is the major cause of this. We are thus challenged by, as Bernard Issacs used to call it, "the survival of the unfittest," as well as the oPtimistic approach of "bringing life to years," as John F. Kennedy said. The fact is that we, as a society, tend to confuse "treatment" and "cure" (and "prevention"). As the proceedings of the conference which this book represents emphasize, there is considerable work going on about the potential prevention of, or at least the reduction of, symptomatology in these illnesses by interventions genetically, chemIcally, and so forth. However, the more we find out, the more complicated it becomes, and the more heterogeneous Alzheimer's and the related disorders appear to be, not only in their manifestations (as clinicians have long recognized) but also in the individual initiating and underlying processes. For these reasons, absolute preventive techniques or the likelihood of an intervention which will reverse the process in a high proportion of patients, do not appear to be just around the corner.