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The Evolving Classification of Dementia: Placing the DSM-V in a Meaningful Historical and Cultural Context and Pondering the Future of “Alzheimer’s”

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Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease is a 100-year-old concept. As a diagnostic label, it has evolved over the 20th and 21st centuries from a rare diagnosis in younger patients to a worldwide epidemic common in the elderly, said to affect over 35 million people worldwide. In this opinion piece, we use a constructivist approach to review the early history of the terms “Alzheimer’s disease” and related concepts such as dementia, as well as the more recent nosological changes that have occurred in the four major editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual since 1952. A critical engagement of the history of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, specifically the evolution of those concepts in the DSM over the past 100 years, raises a number of questions about how those labels and emergent diagnoses, such as Neurocognitive Disorders and Mild Cognitive Impairment, might continue to evolve in the DSM-V, due for release in 2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Humanities, Penn State College of Medicine, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA, 17033, USA

    Daniel R. George

  2. Department of Neurology, Case Western Reserve University, University Hospital Systems, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Peter J. Whitehouse

  3. Department of Science, Technology and Society, Penn State University, 201 Old Main, State College, PA, 16802, USA

    Jesse Ballenger

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George, D.R., Whitehouse, P.J. & Ballenger, J. The Evolving Classification of Dementia: Placing the DSM-V in a Meaningful Historical and Cultural Context and Pondering the Future of “Alzheimer’s”. Cult Med Psychiatry 35, 417–435 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-011-9219-x

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