Study Tries to Find Whether People are Comfortable Knowing About Their Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease

A new study published in Mary Ann Liebert Inc’s peer reviewed journal Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers tries to answer whether people do want to know that they are at a risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. "This article addresses a major disease of tremendous impact on increasing numbers of people and documents the large psychological component that physicians and genetic counselors must be ready to address." says Kenneth I. Berns, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, and Director of the University of Florida's Genetics Institute, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL.

In the article "To Know or Not to Know: An Update of the Literature on thePsychological and Behavioral Impact of Genetic Testing for Alzheimer Disease Risk," B. Rahman and a team of researchers from Australia review the latest studies on whether people at risk for early-onset familial AD want to know their genetic profile and actually undertake testing, and how they tend to respond to the results. They also evaluate the attitudes of the general population and people with a family history of late-onset AD toward testing for disease risk factors and what motivates them to undergo genetic testing.



Source-Eurekalert