Alzheimer's disease is a devastating neurological disorder that can have crippling effects on a family. New research published in the May 2006 edition of the Lancet Neurology shows that elderly people with large networks of family and friends are somewhat protected from the effects of this disease. Researchers studied 89 elderly individuals who had no known dementia and who were part of the Rush Memory and Aging Project in Chicago, IL. Using various measures to assess the extent of pathology assessed postmortem and behavioral/cognitive function tests, the authors found that those subjects with the largest social networks exhibited less dementia even when pathology assessed after death was severe.
Not surprisingly, they found that the more severe pathology in postmortem, the more impaired the cognitive function. What modified this relationship, however, was the size of the network of family and friends seen on a monthly basis (besides spouse and children). This effect was most notable for semantic memory and working memory. Based on these results, researchers cannot conclude that having more visitors will improve Alzheimer's related dementia because other factors may be at play such as personality traits associated with having a larger social network. And certainly, Alzheimer's disease cannot be attributed to few friends and family. These findings will lead other researchers to examine the role of personality in Alzheimer's disease.
Posted by Dr. Jennifer Stagg on August 18, 2006 09:13 AM
