Specialized Care Not a Deterrent to Alzheimer’s

With the rising epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease cases all over the world, scientists are racing to find a way to slow the mental and physical decline caused by this debilitating form of pre-senile dementia that is characterized by loss of memory and a slowing of thinking and reasoning skills.  Families of those suffering from the brain-altering affliction often seek out special care centers that promise specific treatment for the disease and its varying stages, often at great personal cost.

Researchers, curious about the efficacy of specialized programs that claim to improve the lives of Alzheimer’s disease patients though specialized treatment programs, initiated a study to analyze the success rates of such programs and came to some sobering conclusions.  Overall, it was determined that specialized programs that treat Alzheimer’s disease with standardized guidelines do not actually decrease the rate of functional decline in patients with the disease.

Fati Nourhashemi, M.D., of the Toulouse University Hospital in France conducted a study of 1,131 Alzheimer’s patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease from fifty memory clinics in France.  The facilities studied in this project provided either usual care or specialized, comprehensive assessments and treatments, including assessments every six months and guideline-based treatment.  The Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study-activities of daily living scale was used to measure patients’ outcomes.  After assessing the results, it was determined that specialized, comprehensive Alzheimer’s disease programs offer no notable improvement in the daily lives of Alzheimer’s disease patients, and they are essentially of little value to the public and not worth the hefty prices families often pay for them.

Despite these findings, the researchers emphasized that care programs should not be abandoned simply because the evidence does not support their benefit; as human beings, those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease still require the careful attention of care-givers and can only benefit from the best quality of care available to ensure comfort and feelings of security.  The researchers recommend that mental health practitioners working with Alzheimer’s disease patients take care to collaborate with specialists, review care plans more often and work with social workers and patient’s families to facilitate the best care for those who suffer the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s disease.