Pat Summitt's diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer's has cast a new spotlight on this form of dementia, which according to the Mayo Clinic, affects 5 percent of all Alzheimer's patients, or around 500,000 Americans.
Summitt, who for over 35 years has led Tennessee's Lady Volunteers basketball team to eight national championships, is just 59 years old. Most Alzheimer's patients are diagnosed after age 65, but cases of patients in their 30s and 40s aren't unheard-of.
"In contrast to what many people think, Alzheimer's disease does not only affect older persons. It can also affect persons in their middle adult ages," said Dr. Zoe Arvanitakis, a neurologist in the Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
There's a perception that early onset Alzheimer's progresses faster than other cases, said Glenn Smith, Ph.D., a neuropsychologist at the Mayo Clinic.
"Often, people may find themselves overwhelmed with caring for elderly parents, the loved one with early-onset Alzheimer's and their children all at the same time," Smith wrote, so those with early-onset dementia may end up entering nursing homes five years earlier than their late-onset counterparts.
