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Alzheimer’s Disease: Advances in Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment

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Encyclopedia of Geropsychology

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Synonyms

Dementia of the Alzheimer’s type

Definition

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive, irreversible brain disorder that is the most common cause of dementia in later life. It is characterized clinically by a profound impairment in new learning and memory recall along with deficits commonly in expressive language, complex problem-solving, and visuospatial functions. Neuropathologically the signature of the disease includes abnormal processing and aggregation of two proteins: β-amyloid and tau protein, which leads to the formation of amyloid plaques and intraneuronal fibrillary tangles. Fluid and imaging biomarker tests are now available to measure these abnormalities to facilitate reliable AD diagnosis and staging across the disease continuum.

Introduction

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive, irreversible brain disorder that is the most common cause of dementia in later life. Although typically conceptualized as a disorder of old age with symptom onset commonly in the...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology, Duke University Medical Center, 2200 W Main Street, Suite A200, 27705, Durham, NC, USA

    Kathleen A. Welsh-Bohmer

Authors
  1. Kathleen A. Welsh-Bohmer
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kathleen A. Welsh-Bohmer .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Nancy A. Pachana

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© 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore

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Welsh-Bohmer, K.A. (2016). Alzheimer’s Disease: Advances in Clinical Diagnosis and Treatment. In: Pachana, N. (eds) Encyclopedia of Geropsychology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_326-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-080-3_326-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-287-080-3

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