Waf f ling could be an early sign of Alzheimer’s
TALKING in a long-winded way could be an early sign of Alzheimer’s, experts warned yesterday.
Most tests for the brain-wasting disease focus on the power of recall.
but researchers are developing a test that looks at whether it can be detected before a patient’s memory starts to fail.
they found that people suffering from mild cognitive impairment, which is the stage before full-blown Alzheimer’s develops, speak in a more rambling way.
Us experts told the American Association for the Advancement of science’s annual meeting in boston that while there was still no cure, early detection could play an important role in developing treatments.
dr Janet Cohen sherman, a clinical psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, said: ‘one of the greatest challenges right now in terms of Alzheimer’s disease is to detect changes very early on when they are still very subtle, and to distinguish them from changes we know occur with normal ageing.’ she has been inspired by studies on famous Alzheimer’s patients such as Ronald Reagan, Iris Murdoch and Agatha Christie.
For example, one study compared the language used between Ronald Reagan, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s six years after leaving office, and George W bush in press conferences. she said: ‘Ronald Reagan started to have a decline in the number of unique words with repetitions of statements over time, whereas George W bush didn’t.
‘Ronald Reagan started using more fillers, more empty phrases like ‘thing’, ‘something’, ‘basically’, ‘actually’ or ‘well’ – more empty words in his speech.’
similar studies on the works of writers Agatha Christie, who is suspected to have had Alzheimer’s, and Iris Murdoch, who was diagnosed with it, found the vocabulary in her later books became less varied.
to see if people on the verge of getting Alzheimer’s were showing detectable differences compared with healthy people, the researchers devised a simple task. they gave individuals three words – for example, ‘stove, water and pot’ – and asked them to create a sentence with these words.
the study looked at 22 healthy individuals, 24 healthy older individuals and 22 suffering from mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
dr sherman said there was a ‘significant difference’ between the healthy groups and the one with cognitive impairment, adding: ‘their speech was very different, they were much less concise in conveying information, the sentences were much longer and they were more roundabout in getting their point across.
‘MCIs tended to get lost along the way and had more difficulty connecting and remembering the three words.
‘We are hoping we might be able to develop this into a test to detect early changes that are predictive of Alzheimer’s disease.’
she added: ‘Many individuals may be long-winded, that’s not a concern. You need to be concerned if there is a change in your ability to communicate effectively.’