Please note - this EPG Alzheimers Knowledge Centre is for Doctors and other Health Care Professionals. Some resources are available for patients and care givers and may be accessed here.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease which will affect most of us at one point in time, and it’s prevalence increases with age.

In the early stages in particular, dementia is often difficult to diagnose, since many symptoms are not recognized as such or are trivialized by the patient. 20% of actual dementia cases are reported to be incorrectly diagnosed as a different disease.

In early dementia the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease include memory loss, disorientation and confusion. These symptoms are caused by the loss of neurons and worsen with continuous neurodegeneration. The pathology of dementia is not solely the result of a cholinergic deficit. It is known that, chronically and pathologically elevated glutamate concentrations play an important role.

In general two main groups of dementia can be distinguished, requiring different types of treatment:

• Cerebro-organic (primary) forms of dementia
• Non-cerebro-organic (secondary) forms of dementia

Depending on the stage of the disease, clinical symptoms of varying intensity dominate. With the progression of AD, treatment is aimed particularly at improving and stabilizing personal everyday functions, so as to keep patients independent for as long as possible. 

Enter the Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Centre

What’s in this Alzheimers Knowledge Centre?

Prevalence of Alzheimers | Symptoms of Alzheimers | The stages Of Alzheimers | Types of Dementia | Disease Progression | Treatment Options |  Cholinesterae Inhibitors | NMDA Receptors Antagonists | Pipeline Treatments | Downloads | Clinical Studies | Useful Links | Patient Resources | Tips for Caregivers | Downloads for Patients | What the Experts Say | Active Ingredient & MoA | Indication & Diagnosis | Dosage Application | Evaluating Success | Side Effects & Interactions | Prescription & Costs | Acetylcholine | Agnosia | Apagia | Amyloid precursor protein | Antagonist | Aphasia | Apoptosis | Apraxia | Atrophy | ß-amyloid | Behavioural symptoms | Cognitive functions | Cognitive symptoms | Cyclooxygenase | Dysphasia | Dyspraxia | Encephalopathy | Excitotoxicity | γ-secretase | Glutamate | Hippocampus | Ischemic | Limbic system | Long-term potentiation | Litochondrium | MK-801 | Myoclonus | N-methyl-D-aspartate | NSAID | Neurodegeneration | Nucleus basalis magnocellularis | Parietal lobe | PCP | Plaque | Quinolinic acid | Synaptic cleft | Tangles |Temporal lobe