Early intervention may be the future of Alzheimer’s treatment, according to Newsweek’s recent cover story on the disease. The article called for proactive diagnosis and aggressive preventative treatments. This approach to drug development marks a major departure from the conventional focus, aimed at treating later stages of AD.
“I’m afraid that even by the stage of very mild dementia, you’ve already lost 70 percent of the key neurons in the memory regions of the brain. Ultimately, we need to start treating people before there are symptoms,” Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Dr. Reisa Sperling, director of the Center for Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment, told Newsweek.