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Down’s Syndrome and Dementia of the Alzheimer Type

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Dementia

Abstract

The long-standing observation of deterioration in later life in people with Down’s syndrome (Fraser and Mitchell, 1876) and the subsequent observation of Alzheimer-like neuropathology in the brains of people with Down’s syndrome (Struwe, 1929) has been the subject of considerable research. It has been established that a significant percentage of people with Down’s syndrome are at risk for developing Alzheimer-like neuropathology and for dementing, possibly as early as their third or fourth decade of life. This is specific to Down’s syndrome and is not observed in other disorders associated with developmental learning disabilities (mental handicap). The increased risk of developing Alzheimer-like neuropathology in later life is therefore likely to be related to the specific cause of Down’s syndrome, trisomy 21, and not simply due to the consequences of non-specific abnormalities of brain development which also occur in other single gene, chromosomal or environmental determined disorders associated with developmental learning disability.

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Authors
  1. A. J. Holland
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Manchester, UK

    Alistair Burns (Professor of Old Age Psychiatry) (Professor of Old Age Psychiatry)

  2. Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK

    Raymond Levy (Professor of Old Age Psychiatry) (Professor of Old Age Psychiatry)

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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Holland, A.J. (1994). Down’s Syndrome and Dementia of the Alzheimer Type. In: Burns, A., Levy, R. (eds) Dementia. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6805-6_43

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6805-6_43

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4615-6807-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-6805-6

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