For men with a history of Alzheimer’s in their family, it can be worrisome to think that there’s no cure. It’s also disheartening to know that by the time symptoms emerge, the disease is already damaging tissues. But new research has led scientists to believe that certain psychiatric symptoms may serve as early markers of brain changes related to Alzheimer’s.
Early symptoms
Researchers at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF) worked with the Brazilian Biobank for Aging Studies to analyze the results of postmortem brain tissue tests and the reported symptoms that the deceased person had displayed.
The results, which were published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, showed that certain psychiatric symptoms appear to be likely early indicators of the disease. These include anxiety, loss of appetite, sleep disruption and depression. These symptoms were present before the person had shown any noticeable memory changes.
Although there is no cure for the disease, these markers could help people with the disease get an earlier diagnosis, increasing the chance of slowing its progress.
One of the senior study authors says she wasn’t expecting to uncover the findings. “The discovery that the biological basis for these symptoms is the early Alzheimer’s pathology itself was quite surprising,” says Dr. Lea T. Grinberg, an associate professor in neurology at UCSF. “It suggests these people with neuropsychiatric symptoms are not at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease—they already have it.”
Alzheimer’s in the United States
According to MedicalNewsToday.com, about 5.7 million people in the United States have Alzheimer’s, although that number is predicted to climb to 14 million by the year 2050.
The disease is the No. 1 cause of dementia and its hallmarks include two different abnormal proteins in and around the brain of those who have died with Alzheimer’s—beta-amyloid plaques and tau tangles.
