Alzheimer’s disease is the main cause of dementia, accounting for more than 60% of diagnosed dementia cases in the world, and some 10 million new patients are diagnosed each year. The Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN) estimates that in Spain there are some 800,000 people who suffer from this disease.
Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by loss and death of neurons, which produces a persistent deterioration of cognitive functions, which alters functional capacity and conditions disability and dependence gradually and progressively. On the occasion of the celebration, on September 21, of the World Alzheimer’s Daythe Spanish Society of Neurology (SEN) recalls that Alzheimer’s is the leading cause of cognitive decline in the world and a health and economic problem of the first magnitude: according to the WHO it is already one of the 10 main causes of disability, dependency and mortality worldwide.
Improving the degree of knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease is essential to identify it early and seek treatment
In addition, the SEN emphasizes that the Alzheimer’s has been classified as the true structural epidemic of the 21st century. The last report of the Alzheimer’s Disease International conducted in 2015 estimated that the world had 46 million people with dementia and projected that this number would rise to 131.5 million by 2050.
As warned by the Dr. Juan ForteaCoordinator of the Study Group on Behavior and Dementia of the Spanish Society of Neurology, “In recent years the Alzheimer’s prevalence has risen sharply, parallel to the increase in life expectancy and the aging of the population. The age is the main risk factor to get the disease. It affects between 5 and 10% of adults over 65 years of age, figures that double every 5 years until reaching a prevalence of approximately 50% in the population over 85 years of age”,
Nevertheless “Age is not the only factor. He Alzheimer’s is a pathology of multifactorial origin, conditioned by genetic and/or environmental factors, which are also influenced by others such as arterial hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, smoking or diabetes. Many of them are modifiable, so practicing regular physical exercise, not smoking, avoiding alcohol abuse, controlling body weight, following a healthy diet, and maintaining blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol at adequate levels reduces the risk of this disease”.
It is estimated that a reduction of at least 25% in these modifiable risk factors could help prevent between 1 and 3 million cases of Alzheimer’s worldwide. However, a study recently published in the Revista Neurología indicates that less than 50% of the Spanish population is aware of the risk factors for the disease.
In this sense, Dr. Fortea points out that “increasing the degree of knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease is essentiall not only so that the population can adopt measures that can help prevent cognitive decline: those people with greater knowledge of the disease are better able to identify it early and seek treatment. This is extremely important because we estimate that in Spain more than 50% of the cases that are still mild (prodromal forms) are still undiagnosed. In addition, detecting the disease early allows for better care planning and a better quality of life”.
Facing the future of the approach to Alzheimer’s, the SEN points out that the last two decades have made enormous advances in the Knowledge of pathophysiology and biomarker development to aid in the diagnosis of the disease. “We must highlight the development in the last 5 years of plasma markersmarkers that will revolutionize the way in which we diagnose the disease, since they will allow massive screening of the population and a much earlier diagnosis of the disease”, emphasizes the Coordinator of the Behavior and Dementia Study Group of the .
From this medical society it is emphasized that, however, we are at the gates of a paradigm shift in disease treatment. The available drugs Currently, for Alzheimer’s disease, they do not manage to slow down the progression of the disease, although they do symptoms improve, and these are even more effective early in the disease. But this scenario will change in the coming years. “Currently, many of the new drug therapy approaches against Alzheimer’s disease are based on the use of monoclonal antibodies. This year the first of them was approved in the US, which, although it has been approved despite controversial evidence regarding its clinical benefits, is the first sign that It is now possible to modify key pathophysiological processes of the disease. In addition, currently, phase 3 studies are being carried out with two other drugs with very similar characteristics and from which results are expected to be available by the end of 2023 and 2024 respectively”, comments Dr. Fortea.
The SEN is therefore hopeful that in the coming years there will be new treatments that manage to modify the course of the disease. For this reason, he insists on the need to design a Alzheimer’s plan with adequate funding that makes it possible to have the necessary resources to offer early diagnoses with certainty, as well as to enable access these treatments equitably throughout our country. Something that, today, is still far from being achieved.