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For the next six decades, physicians regarded Alzheimer's disease as a relatively rare disease that occurred only at a younger age. But in the 1960's, scientists using electron microscopes rediscovered the characteristic brain cell degradation and lesions of the syndrome that Alzheimer first described. Recently it has become apparent that this brain disease is not nearly as rare as once thought and that onset has already occurred or is just beginning in as many as 13 percent of the population over 65 years (Cotman et al., 1991, p. 222). The importance of Alzheimer's disease and its ramifications as a major public health problem are just now starting to be appreciated. It is such a common condition that many practicing physicians have regarded it as a normal consequence of aging, as a previous generation of clinicians regarded arteriosclerosis or hypertension as a normal consequence of aging, rather than as disease processes. The age-specific prevalence rate rises by age 85 to 30 percent (Mortimer and Schurman, 1981, p. 133) and above age 85 to 47 percent (Biegel, Sales, & Schulz, 1991, p. 148).
Alzheimer's disease knows no racial or socioeconomic boundaries. Among its victims are artist Norman Rockwell and mystery writer Ross McDonald. Actress Rita Hayworth, movie director Otto Preminger and actor Edmond O'Brien all suffer from Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's affects up to three million Americans, and about 7 percent of the 27 million people over 65 in the United States are severely disabled by the disease (Clark, 1984, p. 56).
Alzheimer's disease claims between 100,000 and 200,000 lives every year, making it the fourth leading cause of death among the elderly, after heart disease, cancer, and stroke (Biegel, Sales, & Schulz, 1991, p. 148). It accounts for 52 percent of all cases of senile dementia. Unfortunately, these numbers are on the rise as the baby boom generation rapidly approaches retirement age. Whe...