THE EXPERIENCE OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE: Life Through a Tangled Veil

The author, an associate professor of psychology at Georgetown University, presents a case for more humane and integrated treatment for people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Sabat complains that, all too often, AD patients are described in terms of their quantitative measures of cognitive dysfunction as determined by tests, and that these tests are used to present a picture of how the disease affects one or another function, but does not contribute to an understanding of the whole person. Although Sabat acknowledges that this reductive method may be useful in evaluating the efficacy of drugs used to treat the condition, it does nothing to help an individual who is suffering. Through his conversations with several men and women with Alzheimer's, parts of which are reprinted here, he demonstrates how the powerlessness, embarrassment and stigmatization AD sufferers endure leads to a loss of self-worth. He argues convincingly that when people with moderate to severe AD are engaged in a supportive way within a natural social situation and treated as though they have something meaningful to articulate, they regain a sense of pride. He envisions a future in which caregivers are trained to relate to their patients and to fully engage their remaining abilities. This informed and humane analysis will be of great interest to those who work with AD patients, but—despite a blurb from Oliver Sacks—it is too technical for the general reader. (June)