ABSTRACT
The investigators have embarked on long, and sometimes wearying, journies of discovery that can only result in the enrichment of our understanding of the life-span prediction of psychopathology. In systematically following people over long spans of time, the question of evaluating those cultural shifts that color the character of an era remains a special difficulty and challenge for longitudinal researchers interested in the study of aging. Like Huntington’s disease, Senile Dementia of the Alzheimer’s Type is a debilitating neuropsychiatric disease representing pathologic rather than normal physiologic aging, for which no treatment is currently available to halt or reverse the progressive deterioration of memory and cognitive ability. Because progressive cognitive loss is the key diagnostic feature in the dementias of old age, it makes sense to longitudinally investigate the premorbid cognitive characteristics of those persons who subsequently develop dementia. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
