The Alzheimer's Solution How Today's Care Is Failing Millions and How We Can Do Better

by Kosik, Kenneth S., M.D.; Clegg, Ellen

• ISBN13: 9781616142087
• ISBN10: 1616142081
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-27
• Publisher: Prometheus

Summary

Kosik, a neurologist and a leading Alzheimers researcher, and healthcare journalist Clegg propose the creation of community centers devoted to Alzheimers where patients and their families can access programs outside of the traditional medical setting.

Author Biography

Kenneth S. Kosik, MD, holds the Harriman Chair in Neuroscience in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and codirects the Neuroscience Resarch institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the executive director of the center for Cognitive Fitness and Innovative Therapies. Formerly, Dr. Kosik was Professor of neurology and neuroscience at the Harvard Medical School Until 2004.
Ellen Clegg is the the author of ChemoBrain: How Cancer Therapies Can Affect Your Mind, She is managing editor for communications platforms at the Broad Institute of MIT adn Harvard, a biomedical research institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Previously, she was deputy managing editor of news operations for the Boston Globe. Her Prior positions at the Globe include Sunday editor and health and science editor.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. 9
Preface	p. 11
The Inspiration	p. 15
The Largest Kindred in the World with Familial Alzheimer's Disease	p. 15
One Family's Story of Familial Alzheimer's: The Noonans	p. 28
Alzheimer's Disease on the World Stage	p. 39
Why We Need Neighborhood Cognitive Shops	p. 59
Nowhere to Turn	p. 59
The Neighborhood Cognitive Shop	p. 65
Community Acceptance of Cognitive Centers and Physician Referral Patterns	p. 70
Achieving Lifelong Brain Health	p. 72
Finding Support in the Community	p. 73
Understanding The Basics: Where We are, How We Got Here	p. 79
The Academy Delivers the Fundamental Biology	p. 80
Big Pharma Sets the Agenda	p. 82
On to the Food and Drug Administration	p. 84
Getting the Basics Right: The First Step toward Drug Discovery	p. 86
Alzheimer's Disease Research Goes Molecular	p. 90
The Plaque and Tangle Cartels: How Research Was Stymied	p. 95
Pure Alzheimer's Disease Is Not the Most Common Form of Dementia	p. 97
New Directions	p. 98
The Medical Model Hits The Shoals	p. 107
What Is the Medical Model?	p. 107
Medicine and Social Change	p. 114
Reappraising the Problem of Cognition in Elders	p. 120
The Medical Model Will Not Work in the Coming Genetic Revolution	p. 122
At the Boundaries of the Medical Model	p. 125
Application of the Medical Model to Conditions That Affect the Mind	p. 127
Application of the Medical Model to Conditions That Affect the Brain	p. 128
The Alzheimer Burden and The Coming Epidemic	p. 137
Alzheimer Disease by the Numbers	p. 138
Institutionalization	p. 140
The Alzheimer Epidemic Is Coming at a Time When the Healthcare System is in Peril	p. 150
A Dance With Two Partners: The Marketplace and The Regulators	p. 161
The System Stymies Physician Creativity	p. 161
Regulation: Can't Live with It and Can't Live without It	p. 163
Paying High Prices for Drugs with Modest Effects	p. 166
Biological Research Will Create a Medical Treatment Tier Available to Only a Select Few: High Medical Costs are about to Soar	p. 170
The Off-Label Quagmire and the Compassionate-Use Quicksand	p. 173
Employer Coverage Will Require Lifestyle Changes to Reduce Risk	p. 176
Cognitive Impairment and Decision Making	p. 179
Why Do People Who are Strongly Opposed to Receiving Total Care Often End Up Receiving Total Care If They Become Demented?	p. 179
Apathy Replaces Despondency	p. 183
Predicting Alzheimer's Disease	p. 184
Physician-Assisted Suicide Rules are Not Applicable to Alzheimer's Disease	p. 187
End-of-Life Issues for Alzheimer's Patients: The Need for a New Ethical Landscape	p. 189
Facing the Prospect of Alzheimer's Disease while Still Cognitively Intact	p. 194
Alzheimer's In The Information Age	p. 199
Thirst for Information in a Sea of Information	p. 199
From Information to Knowledge: Social Networks and the Medical Wiki	p. 203
The Privacy Issue ... or Not?	p. 213
Doctors Will No Longer Diagnose	p. 214
Your Doc Goes Virtual	p. 216
Telling Our Story in an E-World Setting	p. 224
The Challenge of Optimizing Lifestyles	p. 227
Exercise	p. 228
Diet	p. 234
Cognitive Challenges	p. 237
Friends	p. 243
Chronic Stress-An Inner Time Bomb	p. 246
The Happiness Solution	p. 251
Social Networks Drive Adherence	p. 255
Conclusions	p. 263
Index	p. 271
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