Age at Onset and Rate of Progression of Alzheimer's Disease

Age at onset, duration, and severity of dementia were evaluated in 165 patients with a clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Rate of progression of dementia was determined in 77 patients by repeated administration of the Blessed Dementia Scale (BDS). The distribution of age onset among patients was bimodal, with a division at about age 65. Duration of dementia at the time of initial examination was shorter, and rate of progression on follow‐up examination was more rapid in senile‐onset (age 65 or greater) than in presenile‐onset (before age 65) cases. Considerable overlap among values for the two patient groups was observed for both variables, indicating that age at onset is not a strong predictor of rate of progression of dementia in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

[1]  D. Neary,et al.  Neurochemical studies of early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Possible influence on treatment. , 1985, The New England journal of medicine.

[2]  V. Anderson,et al.  Dementia of the Alzheimer Type: Clinical Genetics, Natural History, and Associated Conditions , 1981 .

[3]  M. D. O'Brien,et al.  Cerebral blood flow in dementia , 1986, Neurology.

[4]  L. Iversen,et al.  Neurochemical characteristics of early and late onset types of Alzheimer's disease. , 1984, British medical journal.

[5]  B. Seltzer,et al.  A comparison of clinical features in early- and late-onset primary degenerative dementia. One entity or two? , 1983, Archives of neurology.

[6]  R. Katzman.,et al.  Editorial: The prevalence and malignancy of Alzheimer disease. A major killer. , 1976, Archives of neurology.

[7]  L. Heston,et al.  The genetics of Alzheimer's disease: associations with hematologic malignancy and Down's syndrome. , 1977, Archives of general psychiatry.

[8]  S. Corkin,et al.  Parental age as a risk factor in Alzheimer's disease , 1983, Annals of neurology.

[9]  M. Roth,et al.  The Association Between Quantitative Measures of Dementia and of Senile Change in the Cerebral Grey Matter of Elderly Subjects , 1968, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[10]  W. Rocca,et al.  Epidemiology of clinically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease , 1986, Annals of neurology.

[11]  E. Liston.  The Clinical Phenomenology of Presenile Dementia A Critical Review of the Literature , 1979, The Journal of nervous and mental disease.

[12]  R. Terry,et al.  Senile dementia of the Alzheimer type , 1983, Annals of neurology.

[13]  M. Folstein,et al.  Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease , 1984, Neurology.

[14]  R. Mayeux,et al.  Heterogeneity in dementia of the Alzheimer type , 1985, Neurology.

[15]  C. Filley.  Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. , 1988, Colorado medicine.