World Alzheimer’s Day: Neurologists call for adopting national dementia guidelines

Seminar held at Shifa hospital to highlight causes, preventive measures of the disease.

Neurologists and physicians across the country must adopt standard national dementia guidelines to diagnose and treat Alzheimer and dementia patients in Pakistan.

This was stated by Shifa International Hospital (SIH) Consultant Neurologist Prof Arsalan Ahmad while addressing participants of a community awareness seminar at the hospital to mark World Alzheimer’s Day.



The day is observed around the world on September 21. The consultants also arranged a separate seminar for physicians and clinicians to educate them on dementia diagnosis and management.

SIH Consultant Psychiatrist Dr Wahab Yousafzai and SIH Consultant Neurologist Dr Muhammad Azhar Saeed also addressed the seminar. During his presentation on “Alzheimer’s disease in Pakistan”, Arsalan said Alzheimer’s disease mainly affects the elderly, with the prevalence of the disease increasing with age. After the age of 65, the prevalence of dementia doubles with every 5 years’ increment in age.

He said dementia is a progressive deterioration of intellect, behaviour and personality, adding that Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly.

Among those 65 or older in the country, 160,000 to 240,000 are currently affected by dementia, of which 80,000 to 120,000 probably have Alzheimer’s disease, Arsalan informed.

Arsalan was of the view that the disease can be controlled only through giving due importance to dementia at administrative, educational, and healthcare forums as a chronic illness that is going to have a substantial impact on society, health care providers and the health budget.

He said we can manage dementia only by looking for early symptoms of dementia, identifying the type of dementia, excluding reversible causes of dementia, and rationalising laboratory investigation and neurological imaging. “Do not underestimate depression,” he warned, saying that Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are going to be a major issue as our life expectancy rises. Yousafzai presented a talk on “Behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia”.

He highlighted the diverse range of psychological reactions, psychiatric symptoms, and behaviours occurring in people with dementia. He added that 80 to 90 per cent of patients develop at least one distressing symptom during the course of their dementia.

Saeed gave his presentation on “Diagnosing dementia”, wherein he said the decline in intellectual function, which includes memory impairment, is one of the symptoms of dementia. Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects short term and long term memory, emotions, mood, behavior and language of the patient, he informed, adding further that the disease makes doing usual tasks like cooking, cleaning, and driving difficult for patients, and with symptoms worsening over time.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 21^st, 2014.