Tag : ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

Dementia affects over 57 million people globally, with numbers projected to triple by 2050 due to population aging. While Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dominates clinical focus and public attention, vascular dementia (VaD), the second most common subtype, poses its own set of diagnostic challenges, and a compelling opportunity for prevention through effective vascular risk management and multidisciplinary care.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia with a growing prevalence worldwide. However, diagnosing and treating AD remains challenging due to the complexity of its pathophysiology. Recently, the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association (NIA-AA) updated the 2018 framework for diagnosing and evaluating AD, revising the criteria to incorporate recent advancements in biomarkers. These updated criteria build on the fundamental principle that AD is defined biologically by distinct neuropathologic changes, rather than solely by syndromic presentation, enabling diagnosis through biomarkers. These biomarker-focused criteria thus serve as a bridge between research and clinical practice, offering general principles to guide the diagnosis and staging of AD in line with current scientific understanding.

AD agitation occurs in up to 70% of AD patients and is characterized by emotional distress, aggressive behaviors, disruptive irritability and disinhibition. AD agitation is not only associated with decreased functioning and accelerated cognitive decline, but also with increased caregiver burden, earlier nursing home placement, and increased mortality. Although non-pharmacological therapies are recommended as first-line therapy for AD agitation, they are not always effective.