driving may reveal the first symptoms

Early forgetfulness is not the only symptom of early Alzheimer's. Researchers have just shown that conduct degradation was also a strong signal

The study is small, but conclusive. 20 drivers with early-stage Alzheimer's disease and 20 others in good health were evaluated and compared using video recordings. Psychologists have paid particular attention to patients' "self-regulation behavior", ie their ability to adapt driving speed, respect safety distances, change lanes correctly and anticipate or plan actions appropriately. All critical safety events (accident, near-miss, incident) were also recorded.

Self-Regulatory Behavior

Outcome: Self-Regulatory Behavior "was of lower quality in people with HIV / AIDS. Alzheimer's disease, "says the essay. In addition, sick patients had twice as many accidents as healthy drivers. Moreover, the patients do not seem to have been aware of the deterioration of the quality of their behavior, the entourage must thus be particularly vigilant vis-à-vis the elderly people conveyed.

Today, 900 000 people live with Alzheimer's disease France, and it could affect 1.3 million patients by 2020. Affecting mainly people aged 80 and over, this neurodegenerative disease causes progressive and irreversible neuronal dysfunction of the brain, which eventually dies.

No treatment after 40 years of research

Beyond the recent controversy, the derogation of anti-inflammatory drugs Alzheimer's reflects a sad reality: almost 40 years after the identification of the disease, there is still no cure for it. "The brain is a very complicated problem, it's a 24-hour organ that consumes less energy than a light bulb, and no computer can reproduce that," explains Philippe Amouyel, MD. researcher specializing in cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, and also executive director of the Alzheimer's Foundation.

"Second, Alzheimer's disease is not an acute disease, it has just been understood that it starts early, very early.To make a research work, it would be necessary to start studying pathology. , 5, 10 years before the first oversights appear, and follow the patients for two to three years after, to see the evolution of symptoms. " A new study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, has shown that beta-amyloid accumulation begins very slowly, years before biomarkers become abnormal – this is called 10, 20, 30 years before the first clinical signs.