Friday, March 7, 2014

Actual Death Toll From Alzheimer's Higher Than Reported

A new analysis shows that upwards of 500,000 deaths a year, or more than a third in older adults, are due to Alzheimer's disease (AD), making it the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer.

That's a far cry from the just over 80,000 deaths that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) attributed to AD in 2010.

It's important to know "the actual toll" of AD from both a scientific and a public policy standpoint, lead author Bryan D. James, PhD, assistant professor, Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Chicago, Illinois, told Medscape Medical News.

It has been difficult to estimate mortality truly due to AD because, for example, a death certificate may have pneumonia or some other disorder as a cause of death when in fact AD was the real cause.

"What's horrible about AD is that you lose your personality and your memory slowly over time, and eventually, your brain will shut down and this can lead to your death," said Dr. James. "This is a 100% terminal disease; no one has ever been cured of Alzheimer's."

The study was published online March 5 in Neurology. 

Click to read more on Medscape