Four health 'patterns' that can lead to Alzheimer's including mental health issues
A new study by scientists has uncovered four groups of health problems that can eventually lead to Alzheimer's disease. It is thought that the discovery, made by researchers at the University of California, could 'fundamentally change' how we can prevent and diagnose Alzheimer's.
Health researchers at UCLA analysed electronic health records from nearly 250,000 patients and identified four health 'patterns' that can progress step-by-step towards Alzheimer's. Mental health issues, brain dysfunction conditions, gradual cognitive decline and even cardiovascular conditions have been found to progress in a trajectory towards Alzheimer's.
These four 'pathways' can progress into the eventual development of the disease, rather than any one specific health condition.
According to Alzheimer's Scotland, around around 90,000 people in the country have dementia- an umbrella term for a group of symptoms that impair brain function. It is estimated that 66 per cent of those in Scotland with dementia have Alzheimer's disease.
Improving diagnosis and prevention is crucial for the quality of life of those with the condition, and catching it early can also make treatment more effective. Now the latest scientific findings could bring experts one step closer to doing just that.
While previous research examined individual risk factors for Alzheimer's, the new study, published in the journal eBioMedicine, suggests that focusing on patients with any conditions in one of these four categories may make it easier to identify those who are at a high-risk of developing Alzheimer's.
"We found that multi-step trajectories can indicate greater risk factors for Alzheimer's disease than single conditions," said first author Mingzhou Fu, a medical informatics pre-doctoral student at UCLA.
"Understanding these pathways could fundamentally change how we approach early detection and prevention."
The four specific pathways to Alzheimer's detected by the study were:
Mental health pathway: Psychiatric conditions leading to cognitive decline
Encephalopathy pathway: Brain dysfunction conditions that escalate over time
Mild cognitive impairment pathway: Gradual cognitive decline progression
Vascular disease pathway: Cardiovascular conditions that contribute to dementia risk
"Recognising these sequential patterns rather than focusing on diagnoses in isolation may help clinicians improve Alzheimer's disease diagnosis," said lead author Dr. Timothy Chang, assistant professor in Neurology at UCLA Health.
The researchers also believe prevention can be significantly improved using their findings.
The study showed that by examining the four discovered trajectories, Alzheimer's disease risk was identified more accurately than the diagnosis of single conditions alone.
It is thought that healthcare providers could use these trajectory patterns to identify high-risk patients earlier in disease progression, and interrupt the patterns early, before they advance into Alzheimer's.
For example, high blood pressure in patients often preceded depressive episodes in the study, which then increased Alzheimer's risk.
By treating cardiovascular patients early, the pattern of development into Alzheimer's could be disrupted, improving overall prevention.
Prevention of Alzheimer's could also become more personalised using the findings, as strategies can be tailored based on an individual pathway patterns.
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