80 thousand don’t know they have it

They don’t know they are sick and are slowly enveloped in cognitive decline. A fall from which you can’t get back up. In Lazio there are around 80 thousand “ghosts”: they are people suffering from Alzheimer’s who, however, have not yet had a diagnosis of the disease, the most common form of dementia involving the elderly. The estimate comes from the Santa Lucia Foundation, a Roman IRCCS equipped with a highly specialized rehabilitation hospital. Its scientific director is the neurologist Carlo Caltagirone, one of the leading experts in Italy on neurodegenerative diseases. «The number of people who must have a diagnosis is very high precisely because the awareness of a neurological check comes late – he explains – There are alarm bells that should not be underestimated, starting with memory, attention, and language or behavior. In these cases patients need to be aware. The sooner the diagnosis arrives, the sooner we can intervene to slow down the progression of the disease.” According to the scientific director of Santa Lucia, therefore, the work to be done is on the underground economy. In Lazio there are around 25 thousand people who have officially diagnosed Alzheimer’s, of which 13 thousand in Rome alone and more than six thousand in the territory of the ASL Roma 2. But it is the underground economy that scares, done by those who do not realize that in front of those small signs something can be done. “It is possible to estimate around 80 thousand people who could have a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s and which unfortunately occurs with a delay of around two years”, continues Caltagirone. Slowing down the course of the disease is possible. «Starting from lifestyle, with adequate nutrition, stopping smoking and alcohol, the development of actions that produce cognitive stimulation – says the neurologist – Today there are treatments that affect the slowing down of symptoms: last in order monoclonal antibodies for some time.”

HOW IT WAS BORN

The research is addressing the topic of the development of the pathology, which sees a progressive death of brain cells. All this is associated with the presence, precisely at the brain level, of beta amyloid and Tau protein plaques. The course of the disease lasts between ten and fifteen years and death is often caused by other pathologies, which arise with the worsening of the clinical conditions and general fragility of the person. Rome is at the center of a research project which recently won the latest edition of the Agyr tender promoted by the Airalzh association (the Italian Alzheimer’s research association) and which is dedicated to young researchers. Claudia Carrarini, a scholar at Irccs San Raffaele, is in fact working on a program for the early diagnosis of the pathology and linked to a particular type of treatment, Tps, transcranial pulse stimulation. Together with four other research projects of the Universities of Perugia, Padua, Turin, and the Scuola Superiore Normale of Pisa, it is part of projects of excellence promoted by young researchers under 40. Meanwhile, Airalzh has launched another challenge: a call for support the effectiveness of art therapy on patients suffering from the pathology. «We continue to work – says Alessandra Mocali, president of the Airalzh non-profit organization – to truly be able to arrive at a tomorrow without Alzheimer’s». In the meantime, there is a challenge: increasing early diagnoses.

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