Cognitive disability in alzheimer’s disease and its management

Cognitive disability linked to neurodegenerative diseases and in particular to Alzheimer’s disease, remains an increasing cause for concern through a dramatic prevalence increment and associated socio-economic burdens. Initially Alzheimer’s disease develops asymptomatically with primary clinical signs, such as memory impairment, decline of spatial and perceptual abilities, occurring at a later stage. This delay implies the possibility of promoting early interventions during the pre-symptomatic stage of the disease. Different strategies have been applied in order to prevent/delay onset of Alzheimer’s disease or at least to improve quality of life and health conditions of Alzheimer’s disease patients and their caregivers, especially in the absence of current viable therapies. Multidomain interventions, aimed at affecting several risk factors simultaneously, offer a versatility that may attain improved outcomes in comparison with single-domain prevention trials. These multidomain interventions involve diet, physical exercise, cognitive training and social activities, while music therapy, improving self-consciousness and reducing neurofibrils, may contribute to deceleration/delay onset of Alzheimer’s disease progression. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) provides broad applications to improve quality of life and well-being of Alzheimer’s disease patients and caregivers, suffering from psychological distress, as well as reducing additional public health costs.