Research into Origins of Dementia Exciting Yet Daunting

[This article posted on May 31, 2009. It is posted within the following categories: Science & Research, via Michael Douglas, MD, MBA.]

It’s pretty startling to think that one of this planet’s most significantly disabling disorders is essentially a diagnosis made on largely clinical gounds — Alzheimer dementia. Of course, the term “dementia” itself refers to a syndrome of sorts — a condition whose most salient features can also be present in a multitude of other disorders. No one ever said that medicine was a perfect science; that’s why it is “practiced”. It’s the road to perfection which marks its evolution, taking the society it benefits along the way for the journey.

As we get ready to move into the second decade of this new century of medical exploration, one thing is certain: the easier it is to identify the source of pathology, the more difficult it is to characterize it. New names of disorders, therefore, are rendered out of typical disease findings which have existed for decades. Medicine, in its evolution, now becomes more complex. Within the realm of neurodegenerative disease, the loss of cognition known as “dementia” may now not be as simple to characterize in the face of new diagnostic technologies being studied and constantly perfected, as a result. As we find out more about the origins of the pathology behind this disorder, we may be more perplexed, or … rather, vexed at the amount of overlap we have to muddle through on the journey toward a cure. | LINK