Relatives' Attitudes Towards Informing Patients About The Diagnosis of Alzheimer

Alzheimer's disease ( AD ) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that destroys memory and other important mental functions. It starts slowly with mild confusion and difficulty remembering, then it gets worse over time as the patients may forget important people in their lives and undergo dramatic personality changes. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia, accounts for 60 - 80 % of all cases of dementia - a group of brain disorders that cause loss of intellectual and social skills. Because there's no cure for Alzheimer's disease, it's important to seek supportive services and support networks as early as possible.

Objectives : To evaluate & investigate relatives’ attitudes towards informing patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) about their diagnosis.

Setting : An Najah National University Teaching Hospital & Al-Watani Hospital in Palestine

Methods : The closest relatives of each of 61 subjects diagnosed for the first time as having AD will be interviewed, using a semistructured questionnaire. Spontaneous requests by the relatives to not inform the patients concerning the diagnosis will be also recorded. Why relatives choose to not fully inform the patient about his/her current condition and the degree of relationship between the patient and his/her caregiver will also be evaluated. In AD patients, dementia severity is measured using Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) and Minimental State Examination (MMSE) Before having the interview, AD clinical course is described with respect to progressive deterioration of mental functions and irreversibility of the process. The interview is based on specific questions concerning the following issues :

• Diagnosis in terms of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, or progressive memory loss
• Poor prognosis, which is loss of all daily living activities within 10 years
• Description of possible disease features
• No disease modifying treatments