Summary
Your Organizational Guidance
ebpracticenet urges you to prioritize the following organizational guidance:
Guide de pratique clinique pluridisciplinaire relatif à la collaboration dans la dispense de soins aux personnes âgées démentes résidant à domicile et leurs aidants prochesPublished by: Groupe de Travail Développement de recommmandations de première ligneLast published: 2017Multidisciplinaire richtlijn voor thuiswonende oudere personen met dementie en hun mantelzorgersPublished by: Werkgroep Ontwikkeling Richtlijnen Eerste Lijn (Worel)Last published: 2017Definition
History and exam
Key diagnostic factors
- memory loss
- disorientation
- nominal dysphasia
- misplacing items/getting lost
- apathy
- decline in activities of daily living and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs)
- personality change
- unremarkable initial physical exam
Other diagnostic factors
- mood changes
- poor abstract thinking
- constructional dyspraxia
- prosopagnosia
- autoprosopagnosia
Risk factors
- advanced age
- family history
- genetics
- Down syndrome
- cerebrovascular disease
- lifestyle factors and medications
- less than high school education
- traumatic brain injury
- depression
- hearing loss
- hyperlipidemia
- female sex
- elevated plasma homocysteine level
- artificially sweetened soft drink consumption
Diagnostic tests
1st tests to order
- bedside cognitive testing
- CBC
- metabolic panel
- serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH)
- serum vitamin B12
- urine drug screen
- CT
- MRI
Tests to consider
- cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis
- serum rapid plasma reagin/Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL)
- serum HIV
- formal neuropsychological testing
- genetic testing
- fluorodeoxyglucose-PET (FDG-PET)
- single-photon emission CT (SPECT)
- electroencephalogram (EEG)
Treatment algorithm
Contributors
Authors
Judith Neugroschl, MD
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
New York
NY
Disclosures
JN participates in research funded by National Institutes for Health (NIH) grants. The Alzheimer's Disease Research Center is a site for clinical research but JN is not the site Principal Investigator, has no role in purchasing nor choosing the studies, and gains no compensation if they succeed. JN helps to edit the Focus on Healthy Aging Alzheimer's yearly report.
Acknowledgements
Dr Judith Neugroschl would like to gratefully acknowledge Dr Brandy R. Matthews, Dr Asif S. Bhutto, and Dr Julie K. Gammack, the previous contributors to this topic.
Disclosures
BRM, ASB, and JKG declare that they have no competing interests.
Peer reviewers
Roy J. Goldberg, MD, FACP, AGSF, CMD
Medical Director
Kings Harbor Multicare Center
New York
NY
Disclosures
RJG declares that he has no competing interests.
Philip Scheltens, MD, PhD
Professor of Neurology
Department of Neurology/Alzheimer Center
VU University Medical Center
Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Disclosures
PS declares that he has no competing interests.
References
Key articles
GBD 2016 Dementia Collaborators. Global, regional, and national burden of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, 1990-2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet Neurol. 2019 Jan;18(1):88-106.Full text Abstract
Livingston G, Huntley J, Sommerlad A, et al. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the Lancet Commission. Lancet. 2020 Aug 8;396(10248):413-46.Full text Abstract
Fink HA, Linskens EJ, Silverman PC, et al. Accuracy of biomarker testing for neuropathologically defined Alzheimer disease in older adults with dementia. Ann Intern Med. 2020 May 19;172(10):669-77. Abstract
O'Brien JT, Holmes C, Jones M, et al. Clinical practice with anti-dementia drugs: a revised (third) consensus statement from the British Association for Psychopharmacology. J Psychopharmacol. 2017 Feb;31(2):147-68.Full text Abstract
Birks JS, Harvey RJ. Donepezil for dementia due to Alzheimer's disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2018 Jun 18;(6):CD001190.Full text Abstract
Birks JS, Chong LY, Grimley Evans J. Rivastigmine for Alzheimer's disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2015 Sep 22;(9):CD001191.Full text Abstract
McShane R, Westby MJ, Roberts E, et al. Memantine for dementia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2019 Mar 20;(3):CD003154.Full text Abstract
Reference articles
A full list of sources referenced in this topic is available here.
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