Alzheimer's Disease: Pathophysiology, Hypotheses and Treatment Strategies

1 © Under License of Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License | This article is available from: www.psychopathology.imedpub.com Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an irreversible, progressive neurodegenerative disorder. One new case of AD is expected to be developed every 33 seconds. So, about million new cases will be developed per year and the total estimated prevalence is expected to reach 13.8 million by 2050 [1]. AD is characterized by a group of symptoms classified as cognitive and non-cognitive dysfunctions. The cognitive dysfunction includes memory loss, executive dysfunction and language difficulties while noncognitive dysfunction includes behavioral disturbances and psychiatric symptoms as hallucinations, delusion, agitation as well as depression [2]. In the late stage of the disease, cognitive performance of AD patients greatly declines to such an extent that they need complete support for all their daily activities [3, 4].