By Queen Muse
For many years, a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease was often not given until signs of serious memory and cognitive problems were apparent. Today, patients can be diagnosed earlier in the disease process as with Mild Cognitive Impairment or mild stage Alzheimer’s disease dementia. In the future, routine diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease will likely rely on gene and biomarker testing and occur before symptoms even begin.
Early diagnosis brings opportunities to prevent cognitive and functional losses and to plan for these losses, but a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease can also bring challenges.