Errors in the management of patients with Alzheimer's disease: analysis of problems and ways of their solution

Abstract

Epidemiological data show that Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of acquired cognitive impairment (CI). At the same time, according to statistics, vascular CI and vascular dementia predominate in Russia, which is mainly due to imperfect diagnosis, when any pathological condition associated with cerebral dysfunction in a patient with vascular risk factors is interpreted as dyscirculatory encephalopathy or chronic brain ischemia. However, this can be asthenoneurotic syndrome, migraine, vestibular dysfunction, and a number of neurodegenerative diseases, the most common condition of which is certainly AD. What is more, the treatment of age-related diseases, with the exception of acute vascular disease, is receiving manifestly inadequate attention. All this leads to the lack of a unified methodology for the management of these patients, to the impossibility to have adequate primary medical care, to the low detection rate of CI, to the prescription of drugs without appropriate indications, and to the denial of psychological correction methods. The review highlights the challenges facing the management of patients with AD and the possible ways of their solution.