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| |  Healthy Older Adults With Subjective Memory Loss May Be at Increased Risk for MCI, Dementia NEW YORK -- January 8, 2010 -- A study published in the January 11 issue of the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia finds that healthy older adults reporting subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) are 4.5 times more likely to progress to the more advanced memory-loss stages of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia, compared with those without SCI. The long-term study completed tracked 213 adults with and without SCI over an average of 7 years, with data collection taking nearly two decades. Further cognitive decline to MCI or dementia was observed in 54% of older adults with SCI, while only in 15% of individuals free of SCI. “This is the first study to use mild cognitive impairment as well as dementia as an outcome criterion to demonstrate the outcome of SCI as a possible forerunner of eventual Alzheimer’s disease,” said Barry Reisberg, MD, Fisher Alzheimer’s Disease Program, and Clinical Core, New York University (NYU) Alzheimer’s Disease Center, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, New York. “The findings indicate that a significant percentage of people with early subjective symptoms may experience further cognitive decline, whereas few persons without these symptoms decline. If decline does occur in those without SCI symptoms, it takes considerably longer than for those with subjective cognitive symptoms.” According to the authors, researchers and physicians can now target the prevention of eventual Alzheimer’s disease in the SCI stage, beginning more than 20 years before dementia becomes evident “These intriguing results more fully describe the possible relationship between early signs of memory loss and development of more serious impairment,” said Neil Buckholtz, PhD, National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Maryland. “This is critical to know, as we look for ways to define who is at risk and for whom the earliest interventions might be successful.” “These findings also underscore the importance of clinicians’ asking about, and listening to, concerns regarding changes in cognition and memory among their aging patients,” said Dr. Buckholtz.
SOURCE: NYU Langone Medical Center
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