What are some of the early warning signs of Alzheimer's disease?

What are some of the early warning signs of Alzheimer's disease?

Gus Alva (Medical Director, ATP Clinical Research) gives expert video advice on: What is "Alzheimer's disease"?; How can I identify the first stage of Alzheimer's disease?; What happens to the brain of an Alzheimer's patient? and more...

Common telltale signs in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease can include things like repeating oneself, being more forgetful, maybe losing oneself in a place that previously would have been very familiar to the individual, asking the same question, and again maybe being aware that there's a little bit of a drop-off in the ability to remember things. Another tell-tale sign of Alzheimer's disease is maybe dropping out of some of the usual activities that the individual engaged in. For example, the person that previously was an avid golfer is now reticent to do so because maybe his buddies will notice that he's not keeping score right and so on. Oftentimes there's a little bit of a social withdrawal that sets in. Sometimes Alzheimer's can be confused with depression early on, because individuals that share features with depression become inattentive, can't concentrate, can't focus, and are less motivated as a consequence of that. Sometimes there's a question “could this be depression?” or “could it be anxiety?” because the individual that's anxious also can't focus and attend to things, and as a consequence of that wouldn't be able to remember with as solid detail as the individual that would be paying close attention to what's going on around them. The early stage, literally, typically involves memory processing. That's why, unfortunately, many people fall through the cracks or fall through the sieves of not being identified. Remember, one of the more common reasons for an acute confusional state in somebody that's older could actually be tied into an interaction with their medications. If they're taking a combination of medications that isn't good, or they have a disease state (let's say their liver or their kidneys aren't working well in conjunction with the new medicine) that could actually bring about confusion. That might mimic, look like, a dementing process. That's why it's so important to get a detailed, clinical workup whenever there's a question as to whether this could be Alzheimer's disease or not.