Description

Disorders causing dementia—the loss of mental functions in an alert and awake individual— will constitute a large and growing public health problem until well into the next century. Today, an estimated 1.5 million Americans suffer from severe dementia-that is, they are so incapacitated ‘that others must care for them continually. An additional 1 million to 5 million have mild or moderate dementia (27). Ten times as many people are affected now as were at the turn of the century (79). The number of people with severe dementia is expected to increase 60 percent by the year 2000. Unless cures or means of prevention are found for the common causes of dementia, 7.4 million Americans will be affected by the year 2040-five times as many as today. Further increases in life expectancy would increase the number of cases expected, and finding means to prevent dementing disorders would lower it. The public has only recently become aware of the problems posed by dementing illnesses. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have become household words only in the last few years. Efforts of national organizations, such as the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association (ADRDA), have emphasized the plight of families and publicized the problems faced by nationally famous individuals who have developed dementia (e.g., Rita Hayworth). The most prevalent disorder causing dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, has risen from relative obscurity to the cover of Newsweek magazine, the pages of Life, and prime-time television ((’Do You Remember Love?” a made-for-television movie aired by CBS in May 1985), One book on caring for patients with dementia, The 36-Hour Day, has sold over 500,000 copies, and several other books for the general public have found sizable audiences.