One Step Forward, Two Steps Backward: The Ups and Downs of Alzheimer's Disease Research
© Brenda S. Parris
Most of the news is good, not perfect, but it's progress. The news includes the terms "could", "possible", or a number of other terms that, though not certain, do give us hope. But today the news was not so hopeful.
After months (or has it been a year now?) of hearing about a possible Alzheimer's vaccine, we now find that the making of such a vaccine in Ireland has been called off because a dozen study participants became ill with brain inflammation. (CNN article)
This could be a big step backward, but there are also steps forward occurring all the time. A January 10 article told of "Alzheimer's plaques imaged in patients for the first time": http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.js... (New Scientist article) On Valentine's Day this year we learned there might be a blood test developed that might possibly predit Alzheimer's: http://www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/condition... (CNN article) Also on the 14th, we learned of a possible preventative in the amino acid homocysteine: http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/livi... (ABC News article)
My article could have been titled "Three Steps Forward, One Step Backward", because there does seem to be more progress, though there are uncertainties, than failures, in the search for the cure and early diagnosis for this disease.
When I began collecting news article links in 1996, I could find only a handful: http://www.zarcrom.com/users/yeartorem/a... Already, in less than two months this year, there seems to have been more news about Alzheimer's than in the entire year of 1996.
One of those 1996 articles announced that the drug Aricept had been cleared by the FDA for treatment of Alzheimer's disease: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/e2aa.htm (PSL Group article) What a big step forward that was! So many early-stage Alzheimer's patients have benefited from Aricept. Their stories are told all over the Internet, as many of them are doing amazing things, writing, creating Web sites, and sharing in chats and email discussion groups.
My mother died in 1996. She was diagnosed with dementia in 1993, and she was already past the stages when the drug of that time, Cognex, would have helped. Unlike my mother, it will not be too late for us if I or any of my siblings are diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Hopefully an early diagnosis will be available, and there will be better medications. There might even be a cure. There is always that hope.
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