Debate flaring up over use of dementia screening

Specialists urge it to get patients into treatment as early as possible, but others say the harms outweigh the benefits.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. May 15, 2006.

Organizations that issue screening guidelines should consider seriously whether physicians should discuss dementia with patients at age 50 and initiate annual dementia screening in those older than 75, according to a perspective piece published last month in Alzheimer's & Dementia, the Journal of the Alzheimer's Assn.

The authors hope for a positive response that will lead to an increase in the number of Alzheimer's patients able to access treatment at the disease's early stages, when it is most effective and when patients are able to make the necessary arrangements for the time they no longer can care for themselves. Also, patients whose dementia is caused by other reasons could have those reasons addressed.

"There are social and medical benefits. I consider it worth it," said J. Wesson Ashford, MD, PhD, lead author and senior researcher at the Stanford/VA Alzheimer's Research Center of California.

Those who work closely with dementia patients praised the paper for increasing the possibility that screening would become a reality.

"I'm 100% for it," said Mark Sager, MD, director of the Alzheimer's Institute at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. "We cannot wait until the diagnosis is obvious."

Experts say screening has the possibility to improve outcomes not only for individuals but also for their families. Relatives could access social support sooner, and, because Alzheimer's has a significant genetic component, these people also could take steps, such as improving their diet, to attempt to prevent the disease from developing.