NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – The rate of mental decline seen
with in patients with Alzheimer’s disease is directly related
to the educational level of the affected individual, according
to a report in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and
Psychiatry.
The new findings are based on a study of 312 patients
living in New York who were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease
and followed for an average of 5.6 years. Up to nine
neuropsychological tests were performed on each subject during
the course of the study.
Overall, mental agility fell by 9 percent of a standard
deviation each year, lead author Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas and
colleagues, from Columbia University Medical Center in New
York, note. For each year of additional education, the decline
increased by 0.3 percent.
Memory and executive speed, which includes the ability to
adapt to change and organize thoughts, were the primary areas
affected by education level, the report indicates.
Further analysis showed that the link between education and
mental decline was not influenced by age, mental function at
the time of diagnosis, or other factors known to influence
brain function, such as depression and vascular disease.
Previous studies have provided evidence that high levels of
education can delay Alzheimer’s disease. The “cognitive
reserve” hypothesis has been put forth to explain the effects
of education on Alzheimer’s disease, Scarmeas and colleagues
note.
This theory, they explain, holds that highly educated
individuals have more intellectual reserve so the onset of
overt Alzheimer’s disease symptoms is delayed. However, once
symptoms become apparent, more damage has accumulated than in
less educated brains, so the subsequent decline in mental
function is more rapid.
SOURCE: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry,
March 2006.
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