1 minute read
Timeline The study of Dementia
TIMELINE
THE STUDY OF
Advertisement
As healthcare advances, humans are living longer than ever and dementia cases are rising. Dementia is a general term for mental decline, which causes problems with memory, language and behaviour.
Alzheimer’s is the most common cause of dementia, which accounts for 60% of cases.
Alois Alzheimer finds plaque on post-mortem brains
In 1906, Alzheimer, a psychiatrist, began studying post-mortem brains. While studying the brain of Auguste Deter, a 50-yearold woman who had died with dementia symptoms, he spotted microscopic plaque. This plaque is what causes mental decline, as the brain struggles to send or receive information through the plaque.
Alois Alzheimer names the disease
After further study of post-mortem brains and collaboration with colleagues also interested in solving the root of mental decline in the elderly, the disease, was named after Alzheimer. A few years later, just after gaining the chair of psychiatry in Breslau, Alois Alzheimer died aged 51.
Alzheimer's recognised as the most common cause of dementia
In a scientific journal, American neurologist Robert Katzman describes Alzheimer's disease as a “major killer” and as the fourth leading cause of death in the US, following heart disease, cancer and stroke. The results of Katzman’s study create more understanding around the subject of mental decline.
Breaking the social stigma
Alzheimer's Disease International conducted a study in 2012, which showed that 24% of respondents were trying to hide their diagnosis, because they feared the social stigma. Yet as understanding of dementia increases, it is hoped that the stigma will fall — as it has for mental health, AIDS and cancer.
Study shows dementia cases to triple to 153 million by 2050
A study titled ‘The Global Burden of Disease’, published in the Lancet Public Health, revealed that dementia cases are going to increase in the future. This is in part due to an increase in obesity, which is one of the main contributors to the disease, and has also tripled since 1975.
