Alzheimer's disease is a primary neurodegenerative disease whose incidence and prevalence is rapidly approaching epidemic proportions. A major reason for this is that man is living longer than he has ever lived before and the likelihood of contracting the disease is significantly greater within the elderly portion of the population. The problem becomes even more acute in the light of recent estimates which predict that the number of people living beyond the age of 65 is expected to continue to increase. The impact of these statistics on the family and the health care industry in terms of time, effort and cost are staggering. A recent report issued by the Michigan Task Force on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Conditions (1987) effectively underscores this last point. "Each person with a dementing disease requires an average of seven years of care, either at home or in a residential care facility. Care provided at home is estimated to cost about $12,000 annually, for a total of $84,000 per person. This is a conservative figure, however, because many persons with dementia spend their last few years in a nursing home at an average 'cost of $22,000 per year, and some spend from 10 to 15 years in a nursing home, for a total cost of $220,000 to $330,000.

Diagnosis and Early Detection.- BEHAVE-AD: A Clinical Rating Scale for the Assessment of Pharmocologically Remediable Behavioral Symptomatology in Alzheimer's Disease.- Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease by Dermatoglyphic Discriminants.- Dementia, Depression, and Pseudodementia.- The Epidemiology of the Concurrence of Depression and Dementia.- Cognitive Function and Brain-Adrenal Axis Activity in Aging, Depression and Dementia.- Etiology and Pathophysiology.- From Family Studies to Molecular Hypothesis in Alzheimer's Dementia.- Scrapie Prions, Amyloid Placques, and a Possible Link With Alzheimer's Disease.- Alzheimer's Disease, Down Syndrome, and Parkinson's Disease: Selected Pathologic Features.- Neurotransmitters in the Ageing Brain and Dementia.- Sleep, EEG and Sleep Disorders in Alzheimer's Disease.- Treatment Strategies.- On Possible Relationships Between Alzheimer's Disease, Age-Related Memory Loss and the Development of Animal Models.- Serotonin, Alzheimer's Disease and Learning and Memory in Animals.- Intracranial Cholinergic Drug Infusion in Patients with Alzheimer's Disease.- Neural Implants: A Strategy for the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.- Treatment of the Depressed Elderly Patient.- Status of Alzheimer Disease Research.- Primary Care/Physicians.- Gatekeepers: Changing Roles and Responsibilities for Primary Care Physicians with Aging Family Systems.- ADRDA and the Physician.- Home Health Care for Victims of Alzheimer's Disease.- Nursing.- Understanding Progressive Dementia: Making a Case for the Case History.- Exercise Treatment for Wandering Behavior.- The Relationship Between Confusion and Abuse.- A Systematic Approach to the Nursing Care of Acutely Ill Geriatric Patients with Cognitive Impairment.- Urine Control in Patients with Chronic Degenerative Brain Disease.- Cognitive Psychopathology and the Phenomenon of Wandering: Research and Clinical Nursing Approaches.- Sleep and Dementia: Nursing Care Considerations.- Nursing Care of the Human with Cognitive Loss.- Patient Behavior, Care Needs, Personalized Community Resources of Both Institutionalized and Non-Institutionalized Alzheimer's Patients.- The Family.- Creating Ties and Maintaining Support: Networking and Self Help.- The Family Caregiving Role: Stresses and Effective Coping.- Patterns of Functioning and Coping in Black Families: Caring for Physically Disabled Elders.- Designing Services for the Minority Aged.- Environmental Design and Mentally Impaired Older People.- Overcoming Problems in Modifying the Environment.- Public Policy/Legal and Ethical Issues.- When to Discontinue Home Care: The Caregiving Family's Dilemma.- Developing Institutional Policies to Obviate Agonizing Over Complex Ethical Dilemmas.- Alzheimer's Disease: Legal Issues.- Clarifying Who Decides.- Legislative Advocacy and Alzheimer's Disease: The California Experience.- A Public Policy Design Strategy for Alzheimer's Disease.- Public Policy and Long Term Care: Domestic and International Perspectives.- Contributors.