Alzheimer’s disease in family practice

Abstract

21 September 2009 is hailed as World Alzheimer’s Day, creating awareness for the most common type of all the dementias. Senile dementia of the Alzheimer’s type (SDAT) has a four to five year survival rate if a patient is living in the community and a much shorter survival rate for institutionalised patients. The family practitioner is often consulted first by family members who seek advice for a family member with suspected dementia and possibly Alzheimer’s disease. Although a multi-disciplinary team approach is mostly needed, the family practitioner will in most cases co-ordinate referrals and advise family members on practical nursing aspects and decisions about institutionalisation. This article gives a short overview on SDAT, a classification of drugs used in dementia and a treatment approach to Alzheimer-specific pharmacotherapy.