Medications and Alzheimer's Disease

Geriatric Consultant Resources
Senior Care Resources
Medications and Alzheimer’s Disease

Learning about AD

Diagnosis

How is Alzheimer’s disease diagnosed?

It is important to visit your loved one’s doctor as soon as you are concerned they are experiencing any of these warning signs.

Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease can help your loved one benefit from early treatment. It also allows your family more time to better understand and cope with the disease, including care planning with your loved one while they are still able.

The doctor will ask questions about these warning signs, do a physical exam and some tests to help determine if your loved one has Alzheimer’s disease, or to make sure there is nothing else that could be causing these signs (medications, nutritional status, or other potentially reversible conditions).

Your primary care doctor may refer your loved one to a specialist, either a neurologist or geriatric psychiatrist, which specializes in brain function, particularly in elderly patients.

While there is no one test to diagnosis Alzheimer’s disease, an accurate assessment is done by a few tests and exams that lead to its diagnosis.

Examples of tests the doctor will include:

Blood and urine tests that will check for nutritional status and other illnesses (for example, vitamin deficiency, thyroid conditions)
Tests that check your loved one’s mental status, including questions about date, time, place, memory, and language
Tests to check your loved one’s brain and nerve functioning including balance, control, coordination, eye movement, speech and sensation (called a neurological exam)
Scans that take images of the brain to make sure there is nothing else causing the signs like an abnormal growth or stroke

For more information, please visit Caregiver Corner within our comprehensive site.