Alzheimer's Disease Affects Women More Adversely Than Men

A new study has found that women with Alzheimer's are more adversely affected than men with the same condition.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, a group of brain disorders that interferes with a person's ability to carry out daily activities.

Alzheimers Disease
Alzheimer''s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting memory and thinking and making the person increasingly dependent on others.

According to Michael S. Rafii, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Memory Disorders Clinic and an attending neurologist at the Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer Disease Research Center at the University of California, San Diego there are evidence that AD affects women differently than men.

"Many studies of gender differences in cognition have pointed to greater language deficits in women with Alzheimer's disease as compared to men," said Rafii.

"Naming and word-recognition skills have been reported to be more adversely affected in female patients with AD than in male patients, and the differences have been shown to be sustained over time," he added.

However, when it comes to behavioral problems male patients exhibit greater problems than female patients in wandering, abusiveness and social impropriety, particularly in the more advanced stages of the disorder.

In fact, major tranquilizers and behaviour management programs are used more frequently on male patients.

Researchers are working hard to develop a cure for the condition. They have identified several genes associated with the disease.

"Recent work has been focused on identifying the molecule that may be causing AD symptoms," said Rafii.

Researchers from the University of Minnesota and Johns Hopkins University also "discovered a protein complex in the brain that appears to impair memory."

Combined with sophisticated imaging techniques, this discovery is enabling scientists to take a clear picture of the protein deposits in the brain. According to Rafii, "This could lead to accurate diagnosis of AD at very early stages.

Source-ANI
PRI/SK