The Alzheimer Conundrum

Entanglements of Dementia and Aging

Margaret Lock

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780691168470
  9780691149783
• eBook ISBN:
  9781400848461
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Diseases & Allergies
• Index: Social Sciences

Why our approaches to Alzheimer's and dementia are problematic and contradictory

Due to rapidly aging populations, the number of people worldwide experiencing dementia is increasing, and the projections are grim. Despite billions of dollars invested in medical research, no effective treatment has been discovered for Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia. The Alzheimer Conundrum exposes the predicaments embedded in current efforts to slow down or halt Alzheimer's disease through early detection of pre-symptomatic biological changes in healthy individuals.

Based on a meticulous account of the history of Alzheimer's disease and extensive in-depth interviews, Margaret Lock highlights the limitations and the dissent associated with biomarker detection. Lock argues that basic research must continue, but should be complemented by a public health approach to prevention that is economically feasible, more humane, and much more effective globally than one exclusively focused on an increasingly harried search for a cure.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Orientations
• Chapter 1: Making and Remaking Alzheimer Disease
• Chapter 2: Striving to Standardize Alzheimer Disease
• Chapter 3: Paths to Alzheimer Prevention
• Chapter 4: Embodied Risk Made Visible
• Chapter 5: Alzheimer Genes: Biomarkers of Prediction and Prevention
• Chapter 6: Genome-Wide Association Studies: Back to the Future
• Chapter 7: Living with Embodied Omens
• Chapter 8: Chance Untamed and the Return of Fate
• Chapter 9: Transcending Entrenched Tensions
• Afterword: Portraits from the Mind
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index