Screening for dementia

As is true with many mental illnesses, having the disease diminishes your ability to realize you are its victim. With dementia, where early treatment is key to slowing its progression, this is especially true. Most people don’t realize something is wrong until they are in the advanced stages of the disease. Dementia is especially insidious because the early signs look like normal progression of aging.

If primary care physicians would include dementia screening in their annual examinations, more cases could be caught and treated early. The screening could become as routine as high blood pressure or cholesterol checks. Once a determination is made the healthy can be reassured and those with early signs of dementia can receive critical treatment and vital education about the disease. Dementia experts at a meeting co-sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) suggested this earlier this month.

The two organizations will issue a joint statement regarding dementia detection in primary care practice and the aim to increase it. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act signed into law in 2010 calls for Medicare to pay for an annual wellness visit that includes detection of cognitive impairment. This includes dementia.

There are people who argue against the early screening saying that once dementia is diagnosed, there is really not substantial that can be done to treat it. It’s an increased cost and an additional stress on the person. The counter argument is that knowing the disease exists influences other treatments the patient receives. The person will receive better overall medical care.

Source: AFA, MedicalNewsToday