ALZHEIMER'S: CAUSES, EFFECTS, TREATMENTS, & CASE HISTORY
This research reviews literature relative to Alzheimer's Disease and analyzes a case history of Alzheimer's Disease reported in the literature. With respect to the literature review, causes and effects of Alzheimer's Disease, as well as treatments for Alzheimer's Disease are addressed.
Alzheimer's disease is a form of senile dementia (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). At present, it is not known whether Alzheimer's disease is becoming more widespread, or merely being better diagnosed. The American Medical Association, however, estimates that nearly one in two persons over-85 years old suffers from some stage of Alzheimer's. Because the disease attacks the mind rather than the body, it tends to have a long duration, with the average Alzheimer's patient live for eight more years after diagnosis, and often requiring round-the-clock care (Seshadri, Wolf, Beiser, Au, McNulty, White, & D'Agnostino, 1997).
The neuropathology of Alzheimer's Disease in the brain has three elements (Carson & Butcher, 1996). These elements are (a) a widespread appearance of "senile plaques à dark-colored matter that are part of the debris of damaged nerve terminals, (b) a tangling of "normally regular patterning à neurofibrils à within neuronal cell bodies," and (c) an abnormal appearance of small holes in neuronal tissue (Carson & Butcher, 1996, p. 499).
One postulated cause of the degenerative Alzheimer's Disease type (DAT) disorder is acetycholine depletion (Carson & Butcher, 1996). The problem in the context of this hypothesis, however, is linking such depletion to a specific cause. Aluminum is a prime nominee in the contemporary period, but a causal relationship has not been established.
Autopsies of Alzheimer's patients have found a decrease of acetylcholine in the brain. This finding indicates that a problem existed with the acetylcholine system. The question that ...