Kelli Kemenah Mauric
Alzheimer’s Disease is the most common neurodegenerative disease in the worldwide classified as both a genetic and environmental disease similar to hypertension, cardiovascular disease, major depression and schizophrenia. In 1906, a German psychiatrist named, Dr Alois Alzheimer, followed a case of a 51-year-old woman with aphasia, memory loss and behavior disturbance over several years. Upon her death, Dr. Alzheimer recorded notes of her postmortem brain autopsy that included “intracellular neurofibrillary tangles and neurotic amyloid plagues. Dr Alzheimer’s original clinical notes and postmortem brain pathology records were recovered in 1997. All notes and records concluded the 51- year-old woman had the modern diagnostic criteria of a disease more specific than current 1999 categories of neurosyphilis, vascular dementia, and senile dementia. Emil Kraeplin suggested to name the disease after Dr. Alzheimer. Alzheimer’s disease was classified as a neurological disease with cognitive loss in multiple brain areas associated with verbal deficits, memory loss, behavioral and psychiatrist deficits occurring as early as 50 years old. At the time, US estimated 5%-7% of 65 or older elderly had some cognitive deficit and by age 85 47% had significant cognitive deficits requiring long term care facilities equivalent to 4 million cases 85 billion per year in long term care facility costs to Medicare and Medicaid.