Genetic assessment and management of dementia

Abstract

Dementia in lata life is common, usually with a multifactorial aetiology. Early-onset dementy is very rare but much more likely to be Mendelian in origin children of someone with the common, late-onest form of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have a risk of developing AD themselves three to four times greater than the general population risk at the same age. However, this is not much more than above 10% as the corrent average life expectancy Most of the inherited, early-onset disorders causing dementia follow autosomal dominant inheritance with a 50% risk for children and siblings Genetic testing is available for Huntington's disease and for a few of the mutations associated with autosomal dominant disorders causing early-onset dementia, but remains a research activity for other forms of dementia Predictive genetic testing of individuals at risk for Huntington's disease or other inherited dementias shoul be carried out only in regional genetic centres following accepted genetic counselling protocols