This month, September, is World Alzheimer's month, an international campaign to raise awareness and challenge stigma. Dementia is a collective name for progressive degenerative brain syndromes which affect memory, thinking behaviour and emotion. Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia, affecting up to 90% of people with dementia.
The Irish Alzheimer's Society has a wide range of resources, both for Alzheimer's sufferers themselves and for those living with people with Alzhemeir's. The
website includes information on topics such as planning for the future, knowing your rights, important contacts and practical tips on day to day living with Alzheimer's.
RCSI Library has access to a number of resources on Alzheimer's and dementia. Searching UpToDate for 'Alzheimer's Disease' will give you basic information about Alzheimer's, including clinical features, diagnosis, information for patients as well as a summary and recommendations section. You can access UpToDate through the '
Clinical Summaries' section on the
library website.
Searching the Clinical Key database for 'Alzheimer's Disease' yields useful information, including relevant book chapters from a number of different texts including
Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2016 and
Conn's Current Therapy 2015. You can access Clinical Key through the
'Databases' section of the
library website.
For systematic reviews on Alzheimer's and dementia, use the Cochrane Library. The Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Group has over 150 reviews which can be accessed
here.
The World Health Organization (WHO) published '
Dementia: A Public Health Priority' in 2012. The report includes case studies and best practice from around the world, as well as a comprehensive collection of data and statistics relating to Alzheimer's and dementia. The report estimates that in 2010 there were 35 million people worldwide living with dementia and that each year there are almost 8 million new cases. The accelerating rates of dementia are cause for immediate action, especially in low and middle-income countries where resources are few.
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