What should we do if we were wrong and Alzheimer was right?

Abstract

For more than 2,000 years cognitive decline and dementia were considered a part of aging, like graying of hair, wrinkling of skin, or (more recently) reduction of pulmonary capacity or glomerular filtration rate. Thus, our recent predecessors considered “senile dementia” a normal consequence of the aging process. Their confidence increased after Martin Roth and colleagues added specificity to the concept by differentiating it within the broader category of “senile psychosis” (which, consequently, became obsolete). A diagnosis of “Alzheimer's pre-senile dementia,” by contrast, was reserved for people with earlier onset of dementia.