Personality as a warning flag for Alzheimer’s? Not so fast
S
peaking at an international be an imminent threat. There’s a steep price Alzheimer’s conference in Toronto to be paid – literally and figuratively – for the of JAMA Psychiatry, suggest it’s time to tap the
last summer, a group of leading worrying, the trips to the doctor and the tests, brakes on asking physicians to consider a new
neuroscientists and dementia which might include regular brain scans. (and earlier) method of diagnosis.
experts proposed a new diagnosis: mild
behavioral impairment (MBI).
The point? To provide physicians with a
In reality, many people currently diagnosed
His findings, published in the September issue
“In our study that followed more than 2,000
with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) go a decade older adults – for as long as 36 years – we
or more before developing dementia. About one found no personality change that could be
method of diagnosing sharp behavioral and in five later test normal for cognitive function, characterized as an early sign of dementia,”
mood changes that may warn of an impending the explanation being that on the day they were Terracciano said.
loss of memory and decline in cognitive skills originally screened, stress or a medication might associated with dementia. Emphasis on may. have caused them to perform poorly.
Terracciano, and co-authors from the
National Institute on Aging, examined
For years, scientists have been debating, While behavior and personality changes are and exploring, the possibility that behavioral one criterion for the diagnosis of dementia, it Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging.
warning signs – such as a noticeable change has remained unclear whether those changes The study looked at personality and clinical
in personality – might predict the onset of start in the pre-clinical phase of the disease, assessments obtained between 1980 and July
Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. before the clinical onset of MCI or dementia. 2016 from those 2,046 individuals who showed
The danger in a new form of earlier diagnosis
Now a new and comprehensive study from
data following volunteer participants in the
no cognitive impairment at first assessment.
College of Medicine Associate Professor of “We found no evidence for preclinical change
unnecessarily thrust into stressed pursuit of Geriatrics Antonio Terracciano may help to in personality before the onset of mild cognitive
a way to avoid what may or may not actually clear the air. impairment or dementia,” Terracciano said.
is that large numbers of people might be
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