Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the greatest clinical challenges of this decade. Currently over 4 million Americans are diagnosed with AD, and scientists are warning us that tens of millions of people around the world will develop the disease over the coming decades.Obviously the disease extends beyond the patient to the patient's family. Furthermore, patients become more and more reliant on caregivers as the disease progresses and the risk of complications, from failure of basic bodily functions, to falls, to intercurrent illness rises drastically.With the vast scope of its prevalence, and the wide range of issues surrounding the disease, it is important to provide current information to a diverse group of students and clinicians, including physical and occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, nurses, social workers, assisted living facilities, and primary care physicians. It is also important to provide families with information that they can use to assist in home care and long-term care.This book provides up-to-date information about the problem of dementia in the elderly population, particularly due to AD; causes and risk factors of AD, diagnosis, and symptoms and progressions. The book places significant emphasis on rehabilitation aspects such as prevention of falls in various settings.
