Puzzling Out 10 Alzheimer's Myths
JUNE 3, 2009
An ABCNews.com article says that it has become clear that Alzheimer's will take significantly different courses in different people, and, like cancer, likely has a multitude of causes. Because Alzheimer's disease's origins and course remain a mystery, perhaps it should come as no surprise that different doctors have different approaches to the disease. "Whether it's part of normal aging or not, I think it is immaterial to whether we, as a society, say that it's something we don't like, and we call it a disease and develop treatments for it," said Jason Karlawish, MD, Associate Professor of Geriatric Medicine, director of the school's Alzheimer's Disease Center's Education and Information Transfer Core, and Associate Scholar, Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics. "I don't have a problem with saying something is normal aging, but ... I think we have every reason to still provide treatment for it," he said. That treatment, however, can prove costly, and Karlawish notes that economic concerns will play a major role in how Alzheimer's disease is treated in the years to come. "Ultimately, it's an economic problem," he said. "I think we need to carefully, rationally develop therapeutics for it."
