Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) yesterday marked World Alzheimer’s Day by affirming its commitment to provide specialist care to Alzheimer’s disease patients and their families.
September 2016 is the fifth global World Alzheimer’s Month, an international campaign to raise awareness and challenge stigma.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a type of dementia, which is a general term for loss of memory and other intellectual abilities that cause problems with thinking and behaviour and affect a person’s ability to live a normal life.The most common early symptom of Alzheimer’s is difficulty remembering newly learned information.
The progression of the disease leads to more severe symptoms, which include disorientation, mood and behaviour changes; deepening confusion about events, time and place; unfounded suspicions about family, friends and professional caregivers; more serious memory loss and behaviour changes as well as difficulty speaking, swallowing and walking.
The majority of people with AD are 65 and older but Alzheimer’s can affect younger people as  5% of people with the disease are as young as in their 40s or 50s.
Dr Hanadi Alhamad, chairperson of Geriatrics and Long Term Care at HMC explained that Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80% of dementia cases. “This is a progressive disease for which there is no known cure yet and current Alzheimer’s treatments can only temporarily slow the worsening of dementia symptoms.”
“As our local population grows and ages, we are seeing an increasing number of Alzheimer’s cases each year and have developed our geriatric services to include specialist dementia care. We provide pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments to at least 300 patients diagnosed with some form of dementia.”
Dr Alhamad explained that the team also provide much needed advice and respite support to families. “I urge anyone with a family member who they feel might be showing signs of unusual memory loss to come to our Memory Clinic for a comprehensive and confidential diagnosis. They can simply go to their Primary Health Centre and get a referral to the Memory Clinic in Rumailah Hospital and arrange for an assessment by our geriatric specialists,” Dr Alhamad noted.
“ Early diagnosis and the right treatment is very important to help mitigate the symptoms and can reduce the rate of deterioration of the patient’s cognitive functioning. This means we can definitely help patients with Alzheimer’s experience a better quality of life for longer if we can work with them and their families at the onset of the disease,” added Dr Alhamad.
This disease is often called a family disease, because the chronic stress of watching a loved one slowly declining,  can be very stressful for the whole family on different levels, not just emotionally but also financially and physically.