Aging and Dementia

Abstract

Aging, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease are defined carefully to ease the task of identifying their relationships to older individuals with intellectual disabilities. Known risk factors, current mechanisms underlying the development of Alzheimer's disease, and a three-stage model of the progression of dementia of the Alzheimer type are briefly described. The three-stage model is used as the framework for understanding the detailed clinical presentation and management practices utilized for RM, a woman with Down's syndrome who was systematically followed for a period of 20 years while she was alive with a confirmed postmortem neuropathological diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. References to relevant chapters in this volume are also liberally interspersed throughout the account of RM. These citations provide the reader with current knowledge bearing on many aspects of the management and care of affected individuals with intellectual disabilities.