Preclinical Alzheimer’s dementia: a useful concept or another dead end?

Ruth E. Mark () and Yvonne Brehmer
Additional contact information
Ruth E. Mark: Tilburg University
Yvonne Brehmer: Tilburg University

European Journal of Ageing, 2022, vol. 19, issue 4, No 14, 997-1004

Abstract: Abstract The term, preclinical dementia, was introduced in 2011 when new guidelines for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) were published. In the intervening 11 years, many studies have appeared in the literature focusing on this early stage. A search conducted in English on Google Scholar on 06.23.2022 using the term “preclinical (Alzheimer’s) dementia” produced 121, 000 results. However, the label is arguably more relevant for research purposes, and it is possible that the knowledge gained may lead to a cure for AD. The term has not been widely adopted by clinical practitioners. Furthermore, it is still not possible to predict who, after a diagnosis of preclinical dementia, will go on to develop AD, and if so, what the risk factors (modifiable and non-modifiable) might be. This Review/Theoretical article will focus on preclinical Alzheimer’s dementia (hereafter called preclinical AD). We outline how preclinical AD is currently defined, explain how it is diagnosed and explore why this is problematic at a number of different levels. We also ask the question: Is the concept ‘preclinical AD’ useful in clinical practice or is it just another dead end in the Holy Grail to find a treatment for AD? Specific recommendations for research and clinical practice are provided.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s dementia; Biomarkers; Ethics; Mild cognitive impairment; Preclinical (Alzheimer’s) dementia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10433-022-00735-w Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:eujoag:v:19:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s10433-022-00735-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... iences/journal/10433

DOI: 10.1007/s10433-022-00735-w

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Ageing is currently edited by Marja Aartsen, Susanne Iwarsson and Prof. Dr. Matthias Kliegel

More articles in European Journal of Ageing from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().