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Cognitive concerns frequently show up in primary care as adults age, although not all memory loss will progress to the dysfunction of dementia. However, the number of Americans with diagnosed Alzheimer disease (AD) could grow to nearly 14 million by 2060, up from 6.5 million currently.1
To halt that trend, much of the recent focus has been on the success or failure of drugs to slow the progression of this devastating neurological disease, most notably the FDA’s controversial 2021 approval of aducanumab, a monoclonal antibody, or results of lecanemab, another biologic, which slowed cognitive decline for patients in the early stage of disease but, as with aducanumab, was linked with brain swelling and bleeding.2
If no viable disease-modifying treatment options appear, the time-starved primary care provider (PCP) will continue to see these patients and families first as AD cases surge in coming decades.