Conférence « Young onset dementia: seven symptoms in search of a physiology »

Young onset dementia poses unique challenges for the clinician. The comparative rarity and diversity of the culprit diseases make early detection difficult.

This disease spectrum is often heralded by disturbances of socio-emotional behaviour, communication and other fragile functions for which we lack incisive diagnostic tools.

Sensitive and reliable biomarkers are not available for most of the causative pathologies. Even when disease-modifying therapies become available, deploying treatment effectively in individual patients, caring for these patients and their families and meeting their often complex needs will remain significant problems for medicine and for society at large.

In this talk I will consider seven cardinal (and sometimes puzzling) symptoms that illustrate major themes in young onset dementia. I will use these symptoms to argue that improved pathophysiological understanding and development of physiologically informed, dynamic disease markers are our best prospects for earlier and more accurate diagnosis and ultimately, bespoke treatment of young onset dementia.