Pathophysiology of Alzheimer ’s Disease

Alzheimer ’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease leading to dementia worldwide. While neuritic plaques consisting of aggregated amyloid-beta proteins and neurofibrillary tangles of accumulated tau proteins represent the pathophysiologic hallmarks of AD, numerous processes likely intera ct with risk and protective factors and one’s culture to produce the cognitive loss, neuropsychiatric symptoms, and functional impairments that characterize AD dementia. Recent biomarker and neuroimaging research has revealed how the pathophysiology of AD may lead to symptoms, and as the pathophys iology of AD gains clarity, more potential treatments are emerging that aim to modify the disease and relieve its burden.
Source: The Psychiatric Clinics of North America - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Source Type: research