Alzheimer's disease is the single most common cause of dementia, a chronically progressive brain condition that impairs intellect and behavior to the point where customary activities of daily living become compromised. Over 4 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease. Its high prevalence may lead people to believe that dementia is always due to Alzheimer's disease and that memory loss is a feature of all dementias.

However, an article by Alzheimer's disease expert M.-Marsel Mesulam, M.D., in the Oct. 16 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine reports that nearly a quarter of all dementias, especially those of presenile onset, may be caused by diseases other than Alzheimer's disease and that some of these so-called atypical dementias involve cognitive abnormalities in areas other than memory.

Mesulam is Ruth and Evelyn Dunbar Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and professor of neurology at the Feinberg School of Medicine and director of the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer's Disease Center at Northwestern University.

Mesulam described, for example, primary progressive aphasia, an unusual dementia of unknown cause that is characterized by a relentless loss of language but with memory relatively preserved. Once considered a rare condition, primary progressive aphasia is now commonly included among dementia syndromes and has been reported in several hundred individuals.

Alzheimer's disease patients have forgetfulness, usually accompanied by apathy. They misplace personal objects, repeat questions and forget recent events. However, while these patients may forget people's names, word-finding during conversation is not a major problem.

In contrast, patients with primary progressive aphasia come to medical attention because of the onset of word-finding difficulties, abnormal speech patterns and glaring spelling errors. Some patients cannot find the right words to express their thoughts. Others cannot understand the mean
'"/>

Contact: Elizabeth Crown
e-crown@northwestern.edu
312-503-8928
Northwestern University
16-Oct-2003

Page: 1 2 3
Related medicine news :

1. Unusual fatigue may be warning symptom of heart attack in women
2. Emotional memory study reveals evidence for a self-reinforcing loop
3. Molecule important in cell construction also critical in learning and memory
4. Computer memory, MRI technology benefit from student research at UH
5. New theory chalenges current view of how brain stores long-term memory
6. Alzheimers drug improves memory of MS patients
7. Longterm immune memory cells cells do not develop during chronic viral infections
8. Development of working memory, allowing voluntary control of behavior, defined
9. Anxiety good for memory recall, bad for solving complex problems
10. Tea could improve memory, study shows
11. High-fat diets hammer memory, more than a waistline worry