Brain Health Month: Focus on Memory and Cognitive Dysfunction

Every September is China's Brain Health Month, and during Brain Health Month, there are two important health festivals - China Brain Health Day on September 16, and "World Alzheimer's Awareness Day" on September 21, which are enough to highlight the attention paid to brain health issues.

Meanwhile, the public has paid more attention to Alzheimer's disease, which can cause memory impairment. At the 2015 "Spreading Brain Science, Promoting Brain Health" public welfare education event jointly organized by the Neurology Branch and Stroke Branch of the Shanghai Medical Association, clinical experts from the neurology departments of major hospitals in the city gave wonderful popular science lectures to the citizens to popularize disease knowledge; in Beijing, the "Remember I Love You" public welfare campaign to re-understand Alzheimer's disease sponsored by the Chinese Alzheimer's Association was officially launched a few days ago, and in the future it will build a disease education and diagnosis and treatment support network covering the whole country.

According to the latest report from Alzheimer's Disease International, there is a new case of dementia every three seconds in the world, and the number of dementia patients will double every 20 years. Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia. Currently, China has the largest number of Alzheimer's patients and the fastest growth rate.

In the early stages of the disease, the biggest difference between Alzheimer's disease and normal aging is the forgetting of recent events and the inability to recall memories even after reminders. In addition, the patient's behavior and personality will gradually become strange. Professor Zhang Zhenxin from the Department of Neurology at Peking Union Medical College Hospital said that it is easy for family members to confuse the early symptoms of the disease with natural aging, and cases of missed diagnosis and delayed treatment are common. The main reason is that the public does not know about the departments that correctly diagnose and treat Alzheimer's disease, and patients or their families are reluctant to go to the hospital for treatment due to the shame of the disease. Professor Wang Huali, director of the Memory Center of Peking University Sixth Hospital, called on patients and their families to go to the memory clinics of the neurology, psychiatry, and geriatric departments for professional screening when any relevant symptoms are found, so as to obtain early diagnosis and treatment.

Professor Wang Yi from the Department of Neurology at Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University introduced that Alzheimer's disease can currently be treated and controlled through medication. The treatment goal is to help patients improve cognitive function, delay disease progression, improve quality of life, and reduce the burden on caregivers. However, if patients do not receive or adhere to correct diagnosis and treatment in a timely manner, the progression of the disease will not be controlled. When the disease develops to a severe stage, they will completely lose the basic ability to take care of themselves and often die from complications such as bedsores, fractures, pneumonia, or failure of important organ functions.

In our country, some patients with mild illness resist taking medication due to the stigma of the disease, or the whole family has the wrong idea that "it makes no difference whether you get treatment or not", which hinders them from persisting in treatment. Drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease mainly intervene in the patient's cognitive symptoms and mental and behavioral symptoms. Choline esterase inhibitors represented by donepezil hydrochloride tablets are currently the most widely used clinical drugs and are also recommended by domestic and international guidelines as the first-line treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

Professor Wang Xin from the Department of Neurology at Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University pointed out that family members are closest to patients and most likely to notice changes in patients, and are the "discoverers" of Alzheimer's disease. At the same time, they are also caregivers and companions who need to help patients adhere to treatment over the long term and around the clock, and take medication on time and in the right amount as ordered by the doctor. This is a heavy test for most patients' families. We hope that patients, relatives and families can receive more attention and support from society.

Experts call for attention to memory and cognitive dysfunction, and for improving the correct understanding of dementia, especially the differential diagnosis of mental and behavioral symptoms, so as to detect and treat them early and improve the quality of life of the elderly in their later years. The annual brain health education event aims to ensure that the public will never stop paying attention to brain health: even if memory is lost, love is still there!