Ethical issues in Alzheimer's. disease: an overview

Expert Rev. Neurother. 12(5), 557-567 (2012) Alzheimer's disease (AD) accounts for the majority of dementia cases and leaves clinicians, patients, family members, caregivers, and researchers faced with numerous ethical issues that vary and evolve as a function of disease stage and severity. While the disclosure of a diagnosis of AD dementia is difficult enough, advances in the neurobiology of AD embodied in the recent revisions to the AD diagnostic guidelines have translated into an increasing shift toward the diagnosis being made in its pre-dementia stages, when patients have full insight into their prognosis. Genetic issues in AD are significant in the case of rare families with an early onset (before age 65) form of the disease, owing to the presence of deterministic mutations. While genetic testing for the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene a risk factor for sporadic AD is widely debated, it may become necessary in the context of novel disease-modifying drugs. The current symptomatic drugs - cholinesterase inhibitors (CIs) and the NMDA receptor antagonist memantine - are relatively simple to use but their access is limited in many countries by economic considerations and therapeutic nihilism. Although their efficacy is modest, they influence the design of protocols for new drugs since placebo treatment in clinical trials involving patients with established dementia is rarely allowed beyond 3 months. Driving privileges are lost in the moderate stages of dementia, with this decision ideally reached using a standardized assessment algorithm. Physical restraints are still overused in moderate-to-severe stages, but the alternative non-pharmacological therapies and caregiver training programs are not yet fully validated using randomized studies. End-of-life care is slowly moving towards a palliative care approach similar to that for end-stage cancer. There will be new drugs in the near future, some of which will delay progression from prodromal stages to dementia, but their use will require careful stopping rules.