Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Alzheimer’s Disease

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology

  • 63 Accesses

Definition

A neurodegenerative disease of the brain characterized clinically by insidious, chronic, and progressive cognitive decline and histologically by cerebral accumulations of the proteins beta amyloid (plaques) and tau (tangles).

Historical Background

In 1902, a woman called Auguste D. came under the care of Dr. Alois Alzheimer and then at the University of Frankfurt. The patient manifested changes in behavior and cognition. Her clinical course was characterized by progressive paranoia, delusional thinking, disorientation, and poor memory. She was institutionalized for the last 3 years of her life. Upon her death, Alzheimer analyzed her brain using a silver stain and described both extracellular and intracellular protein accumulations. The extracellular protein accumulations were termed plaques, and the intraneuronal protein accumulations were called tangles. Alzheimer presented the results of this autopsy in 1906. Several other similar cases of relatively “presenile” (i.e.,...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References and Readings

  • Albert, M. S., DeKosky, S. T., Dickson, D., Dubois, B., Feldman, H. H., et al. (2011). The diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease: Recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer’s Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimers Dement, 7, 270–279.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Amaducci, L. A., Rocca, W. A., & Schoenberg, B. S. (1986). Origin of the distinction between Alzheimer’s disease and senile dementia: How history can clarify nosology. Neurology, 36, 1497–1499.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blacker, D., & Tanzi, R. E. (1998). The genetics of Alzheimer disease: Current status and future prospects. Archives of Neurology, 55, 294–296.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blessed, G., Tomlinson, B., & Roth, M. (1968). The association between quantitative measures of dementia and of senile change in the cerebral grey matter of elderly subjects. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 114, 797–811.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Campion, D., Dumanchin, C., Hannequin, D., Dubois, B., Belliard, S., Puel, M., et al. (1999). Early-onset autosomal dominant Alzheimer disease: Prevalence, genetic heterogeneity, and mutation spectrum. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 65, 664–670.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Corder, E. H., Saunders, A. M., Strittmatter, W. J., Schmechel, D. E., Gaskell, P. C., Small, G. W., et al. (1993). Gene dose of apolipoprotein E type 4 allele and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in late onset families. Science, 261, 921–923.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • De Leon, M. J., & Klunk, W. (2005). Biomarkers for the early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Lancet Neurology, 5, 198–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evans, D. A., Funkenstein, H. H., Albert, M. S., Scherr, P. A., Cook, N. R., Chown, M. J., et al. (1989). Prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease in a community population of older persons. Higher than previously reported. JAMA, 262, 2551–2556.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gearing, M., Mirra, S. S., Hedreen, J. C., Sumi, S. M., Hansen, L. A., & Heyman, A. (1995). The consortium to establish a registry for Alzheimer’s disease (CERAD). Part X. Neuropathology confirmation of the clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Neurology, 45, 461–466.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gilman, S., Koller, M., Black, R. S., Jenkins, L., Griffith, S. G., Fox, N. C., et al. (2005). Clinical effects of Abeta immunization (AN1792) in patients with AD in an interrupted trial. Neurology, 64, 1553–1562.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hardy, J., & Allsop, D. (1991). Amyloid deposition as the central event in the aetiology of Alzheimer’s disease. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, 12, 383–388.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hardy, J. A., & Higgins, G. A. (1992). Alzheimer’s disease: The amyloid cascade hypothesis. Science, 256, 184–185.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jack Jr., C. R., Knopman, D. S., Jagust, W. J., Shaw, L. M., Aisen, P. S., et al. (2010). Hypothetical model of dynamic biomarkers of the Alzheimer’s pathological cascade. Lancet Neurology, 9, 119–128.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Katzman, R. (1976). The prevalence and malignancy of Alzheimer’s disease: A major killer. Archives of Neurology, 33, 217–218.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Khachaturian, Z. S. (1985). Diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Archives of Neurology, 42, 1097–1106.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Klunk, W. E., Engler, H., Nordberg, A., Wang, Y., Blomqvist, G., Holt, D. P., et al. (2004). Imaging brain amyloid in Alzheimer’s disease with Pittsburgh compound-B. Annals of Neurology, 55, 306–319.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mayeux, R., Saunders, A. M., Shea, S., Mirra, S., Evans, D., Roses, A. D., et al. (1998). Utility of the apolipoprotein E genotype in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s Disease Centers Consortium on Apolipoprotein E and Alzheimer’s Disease. The New England Journal of Medicine, 338, 506–511.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McKhann, G., Drachman, D., Folstein, M., Katzman, R., Price, D., & Stadlan, E. M. (1984). Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease: Report of the NINCDS-ADRDA Work Group under the auspices of Department of Health and Human Services Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease. Neurology, 34, 939–944.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McKhann, G. M., Knopman, D. S., Chertkow, H., Hyman, B. T., Jack Jr., C. R., et al. (2011). The diagnosis of dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease: Recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer’s Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimers Dement, 7, 263–269.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Morris, J. C. (2006). Mild cognitive impairment is early-stage Alzheimer disease: Time to revise diagnostic criteria. Archives of Neurology, 63, 15–16.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mosconi, L., De Santi, S., Li, J., Tsui, W. H., Li, Y., Boppana, M., et al. (2007). Hippocampal hypometabolism predicts cognitive decline from normal aging. Neurobiology of Aging. doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2006.12.008.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Institute on Aging, and Reagan Institute Working Group on Diagnostic Criteria for the Neuropathological Assessment of Alzheimer’s Disease. (1997). Consensus recommendations for the postmortem diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Neurobiology of Aging, 18(4 Suppl), S1–S2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Petersen, R. C., Smith, G. E., Waring, S. C., Ivnik, R. J., Tangalos, E. G., & Kokmen, E. (1999). Mild cognitive impairment: Clinical characterization and outcome. Archives of Neurology, 56, 303–308.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Petersen, R. C., Thomas, R. G., Grundman, M., Bennett, D., Doody, R., Ferris, S., et al. (2005). Vitamin E and donepezil for the treatment of mild cognitive impairment. The New England Journal of Medicine, 352, 2379–2388.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute of the Alzheimer’s Association and the National Institute on Aging Work Group. (1998). Consensus report of the work group on: Molecular and biochemical markers of Alzheimer’s disease. Neurobiology of Aging, 19, 109–116.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sano, M., Ernesto, C., Thomas, R. G., Klauber, M. R., Schafer, K., Grundman, M., et al. (1997). A controlled trial of selegiline, alpha-tocopherol, or both as treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. The Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study. The New England Journal of Medicine, 336, 1216–1222.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scheuner, D., Eckman, C., Jensen, M., Song, X., Citron, M., Suzuki, N., et al. (1996). Secreted amyloid beta-protein similar to that in the senile plaques of Alzheimer’s disease is increased in vivo by the presenilin 1 and 2 and APP mutations linked to familial Alzheimer’s disease. Nature Medicine, 2, 864–870.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, L. S., Tariot, P. N., Dagerman, K. S., Davis, S. M., Hsiao, J. K., et al. (2006). Effectiveness of atypical antipsychotic drugs in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The New England Journal of Medicine, 355, 1525–1538.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Snowdon, D. A., Kemper, S. J., Mortimer, J. A., Greiner, L. H., Wekstein, D. R., & Markesbery, W. R. (1996). Linguistic ability in early life and cognitive function and Alzheimer’s disease in late life. Findings from the Nun Study. JAMA, 275, 528–532.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sperling, R. A., Aisen, P. S., Beckett, L. A., Bennett, D. A., Craft, S., et al. (2011). Toward defining the preclinical stages of Alzheimer’s disease: Recommendations from the National Institute on Aging-Alzheimer’s Association workgroups on diagnostic guidelines for Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimers Dement, 7, 280–292.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Swerdlow, R. H. (2007). Is aging part of Alzheimer’s disease, or is Alzheimer’s disease part of aging? Neurobiology of Aging, 28, 1465–1480.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Kansas School of Medicine, Landon Center on Aging, 3901 Rainbow Blvd., MS 2012, Kansas City, KS, 66160, USA

    Russell H. Swerdlow

  2. Department of Neurology, University of Kansas School of Medicine, 3901 Rainbow Blvd., MS 2012, Kansas City, KS, 66160, USA

    Heather Anderson & Jeffrey M. Burns

Authors
  1. Russell H. Swerdlow
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Heather Anderson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jeffrey M. Burns
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Russell H. Swerdlow .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Richmond, Virgin Islands, USA

    Jeffrey Kreutzer

  2. Kessler Foundation , West Orange, New Jersey, USA

    John DeLuca

  3. Suite 200 , Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, USA

    Bruce Caplan

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Swerdlow, R.H., Anderson, H., Burns, J.M. (2016). Alzheimer’s Disease. In: Kreutzer, J., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_290-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_290-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-56782-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-56782-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation