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Doing the Right Thing: A Geriatrician's Perspective on Medical Care for the Person with Advanced Dementia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Muriel R. Gillick
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Extract

America is aging. But even more striking than the rise in the proportion of the population over age 65 is the unprecedented number of individuals who are living into their eighties and nineties. While many people remain robust well into advanced age, the dramatic increase in the number of the oldest old has brought with it an epidemic of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Dementia is a highly prevalent condition — currently 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, a number which may rise to 16 million by 2050 if there is no breakthrough in the prevention or treatment of the disease — but it disproportionately affects those over age 85, striking between one-third and one-half of this cohort. Developing a reasonable approach to the medical care of older people with dementia will be essential in the coming decades.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , Spring 2012 , pp. 51 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2012

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