March 11, 1997 NEW YORK (UPI) - Millions of elderly Americans may be suffering from "silent dementia," a loss of memory that is overlooked by their families and goes untreated even though therapies exist for some forms of mental deterioration.
In an article published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers interviewed family members closest to 191 men suffering from some form of dementia, ranging from mild memory loss to Alzheimer's disease. The researchers were part of the Honolulu-Asia Aging Study, a long-term survey of dementia among 4, 000 Japanese-Americans born between 1900 and 1919,
What they found: about one fifth of the families could not recognize signs of mental decline. Of families who did notice some memory loss, about 53 percent did not seek help from their doctors.
"A large proportion of people with dementia in the U.S. are not receiving medical services and potential treatments," says G. Webster Ross of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Honolulu, Hawaii, and the study leader. He estimates more than 60 percent of the 2 million to 4 million Americans with a dementing illness are undiagnosed or untreated.
Although there is no truly effective therapy for Alzheimer's disease, other forms of memory loss caused by vitamin B 12 deficiency, hyperthyroidism, strokes, drugs and central nervous system infections can be treated, Ross says.
Among reasons for families overlooking dementia is the common belief that a loss of mental power is an unavoidable part of aging and a sense of respect for the elderly men, especially in cases where the primary caretaker was a wife. Also, in some cases, the memory lapses were subtle and did not interfere with daily living.
Ross suggests that people who suspect memory loss in an elderly relative should ask their family physician to conduct a mental status test.
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