Early Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnosis and Treatment Patterns Examined by Analysis Group Researchers
April 8, 2025
Timely diagnosis is critical for patients with Alzheimer’s, particularly given the emergence of therapies that can slow disease progression if they are prescribed to patients at the earliest symptomatic stages of the condition. Despite this, delayed diagnoses persist for patients with mild cognitive impairment and mild dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease, conditions that are collectively referred to as early Alzheimer’s disease. Given that the burden of Alzheimer's increases as it progresses and that the prevalence of the condition in the US is projected to double by 2050, there is an urgent need to examine ways to improve diagnostic and treatment practices for early Alzheimer’s disease.
To understand how patients with early Alzheimer’s disease are diagnosed and treated, an Analysis Group team led by Managing Principal Keith Betts and Associate Ashley Holub collaborated with researchers from Eisai, the University of Southern California, and Prevent Alzheimer's Disease 2020 on an observational study of medical chart data. The researchers assessed data from community-based primary care physicians and neurologists on the kinds of neurocognitive assessments, biomarker and imaging tests, referrals, and treatments undergone by patients diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s disease. In an article about their findings, the authors report that physicians have not taken a uniform approach to evaluating such patients, note disparities in the types of tests used to diagnose the condition (including among patients of different races), and suggest that certain tests may be more effective than others at shortening the time to diagnosis for patients with early Alzheimer’s disease. They conclude that “as more novel therapies become available, physicians must be able to increase their capacity to identify patients with [Alzheimer’s] early in their disease” and that education about best diagnostic practices and new technologies could facilitate timely diagnoses and help improve outcomes for such patients.
The article, “Real-world diagnostic, referral, and treatment patterns in early Alzheimer's disease among community-based practices in the United States,” was published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.