April 2, 2021 | Medpage Today
A Revolution Is Underway in Alzheimer's, and It's Not All Good
From Medpage Today:
The biomarker revolution has changed the way people look at Alzheimer's disease -- and that has its downsides, says Jason Karlawish, MD, co-director of the Penn Memory Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
"Over a fairly short period of time, we've had a revolutionary redefinition about what we talk about when we talk about Alzheimer's," Karlawish said in an interview with MedPage Today. "This is really made possible by two events: one is the discovery of biomarkers, and the other is the discovery of the idea of mild cognitive impairment."
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The biomarker revolution has changed the way people look at Alzheimer's disease -- and that has its downsides, says Jason Karlawish, MD, co-director of the Penn Memory Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
"Over a fairly short period of time, we've had a revolutionary redefinition about what we talk about when we talk about Alzheimer's," Karlawish said in an interview with MedPage Today. "This is really made possible by two events: one is the discovery of biomarkers, and the other is the discovery of the idea of mild cognitive impairment."
In the field of Alzheimer's disease, science often collides with politics. Battle lines are drawn over cure versus care. More than six million Americans live with Alzheimer's, and many more provide unpaid care for patients. And decades after scientists first realized they could clear the brain of amyloid plaques -- a hallmark of the disease, along with tau tangles -- people with Alzheimer's have no effective treatments.
This is the backdrop for Karlawish's new book, The Problem of Alzheimer's: How Science, Culture, and Politics Turned a Rare Disease Into a Crisis and What We Can Do About It. MedPage Today senior staff writer Judy George spoke with Karlawish to learn more about the complexity of Alzheimer's disease in today's society.