Todd Cardin Talks about Coping with Alzheimer's

Mental Health Answering Service

(PRWEB) June 30, 2006 -- Todd Cardin announced that his company Mental Health Answering Service http://www.mentalhealthoncall.com/todd_cardin.html will be holding an operator conference on coping with Alzeheimer's disease. Cardin sees the training seminar as a valuable tool for his CSR's in dealing with a difficult aspect of their job, as well as educate them in the event that they are touched personally by the disease.

Alzheimer's disease is a primary degenerative cerebral disease of unknown etiology, with characteristic neuropathological and neurochemical features. It is usually insidious in onset and develops slowly but steadily over a period of years. This period can be as short as 2 or 3 years, but can occasionally be considerably longer. The onset can be in middle adult life or even earlier (Alzheimer's disease of presenile onset), but the incidence is higher in later life (Alzheimer's disease of senile onset). In cases with onset before the age of 65-70, there is the likelihood of a family history of a similar dementia, a more rapid course, and prominence of features of temporal and parietal lobe damage, including dysphasia or dyspraxia. In cases with a later onset, the course tends to be slower and to be characterized by more general impairment of higher cortical functions. Patients with Down's syndrome are at high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

There are characteristic changes in the brain: a marked reduction in the population of neurons, particularly in the hippocampus, substantia innominata, locus ceruleus, and temporoparietal and frontal cortex; appearance of neurofibrillary tangles made of paired helical filaments; neuritic (argentophil) plaques, which consist largely of amyloid and show a definite progression in their development (although plaques without amyloid are also known to exist); and granulovacuolar bodies. Neurochemical changes have also been found, including a marked reduction in the enzyme choline acetyltransferase, in acetylcholine itself, and in other neurotransmitters and neuromodulators.

As originally described, the clinical features are accompanied by the above brain changes. However, it now appears that the two do not always progress in parallel: one may be indisputably present with only minimal evidence of the other. Nevertheless, the clinical features of Alzheimer's disease are such that it is often possible to make a presumptive diagnosis on clinical grounds alone.

Cardin has seen the disease first hand. Family, friends and parents of friends have all suffered at the hands of this degenerative nightmare. As the owner of Mental Health On Call Answering Servicehttp://www.mentalhealthoncall.com/todd_cardin.html , Cardin sees it affecting the landscape mental health in the United States.

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