Feb 19, 2009 4:09 pm US/Eastern
Alzheimer's May Affect Patients' Memory Earlier
BOSTON (WBZ) ―
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Experts say it's the first time they've been able to show that early signs of Alzheimer's can occur in people decades before the disease is typically diagnosed.
WBZ
Local researchers have made some important new findings about Alzheimer's. We're learning that it may start to affect patients' memory far earlier than previously thought.
Irene Courchesne was diagnosed with early symptoms of Alzheimer's when she was just 60-years old. "My mother had it and now I think there's another member of my family that has it."
Researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine have now discovered middle-aged people, like Irene, whose parents have Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia who also have a gene that's been linked to Alzheimer's, can start showing early signs of the disease without realizing it.
"We found individuals with parents who had diagnosed had significantly reduced performance on memory tests compared to patients whose parents weren't demented," said Dr. Stephanie Debette from the Boston University School of Medicine and Framingham Heart Study.
Experts say it's the first time they've been able to show that early signs can occur in people decades before the disease is typically diagnosed. "It is significant because we found memory changes can be detected as early as 20 years prior to the age when dementia usually develops," said Dr. Debette.
Experts hope further research will allow them to potentially identify patients at the highest risk for developing Alzheimer's much sooner than they can now and develop new drugs to treat the disease in its earliest stages.
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