On July 24th, The New York Times featured comments by 2003 Beeson Scholar Kenneth Lango, MD, PhD, on a new questionnaire developed to help detect early signs of dementia.
Researchers believe that lasting personality change may be associated with dementia. Studies have found that patients with mild cognitive decline and signs of significant personality or mood change have a greater chance of developing dementia then patients who exhibit cognitive decline without personality change.
Assessing this questionnaire developed to potentially help doctors identify early onset of dementia through personality change, Dr. Lango warns that while this method may led to early detection, it could also result in overdiagnosis. He states, “There’s the potential benefit of early diagnosis, identifying people more likely to decline, the flip side is overdiagnosis, labeling someone and getting people in the clinical cascade, where you start doing the test and people start doing more brain imaging and being at the doctor’s more and getting more concerned.”
Dr. Langa, who also cites the economic costs of overdiagnosis, recommends that this test continue to be tested in a research setting before entering clinical practice.
Kenneth Lango, MD, PhD, is a Professor Internal Medicine, Gerontology, and Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan.
Learn more about the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in our InfoAging portal.
