The longer a patient with a neurodegenerative disease goes undiagnosed and untreated, the less likely it is that treatment will be effective, a Penn Memory Center neurologist told Penn Medicine.
“Early detection and diagnosis result in the ability to get patients started with early interventions,” said Dr. Sanjeev Vaishnavi, an assistant professor of Neurology. “Medications can result in an initial stabilization in memory and functional impairment, especially when used early in the course of the disease.”
For that to take place, someone — be it the patient or a loved one — needs to begin a difficult conversation.
“This is certainly not an easy conversation to start,” Vaishnavi said. “People are scared of the words dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
“It’s rare that a person hasn’t seen the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s on someone else. They don’t want to think about themselves in that position. People are afraid they will be labeled as ‘no longer smart.’ People are concerned that they might lose their job, or become a burden on their loved ones, or that someone may become unrecognizable to them.”
Read the complete article on PennMedicine.org.