Children of persons with Alzheimer disease (AD), as a group, face an increased risk of developing AD. Many of them, throughout their adult lives, seek input on how to reduce their chances of one day suffering their parent's fate. We examine the state of knowledge with respect to risk and protective factors for AD and recommend a research agenda with special emphasis on AD offspring.

Results suggest that the CIRS can be used as an indicator of medical burden even with the inclusion of acute conditions. If replicated, these findings may increase CIRS use and thus aid the effort to encourage clinicians working with psychogeriatric patients to use standardized instruments to document medical burden.

The objective of this pilot study on a convenience sample of 25 offspring of Alzheimer patients (mean age 61.5 +/- 8.8 years; range, 50-82) was the early detection of neurocognitive decline. This preliminary report appears to be the first one dealing with 20-year follow-up of neurocognitive data of Alzheimer's disease (AD) children. Digit symbol (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale) was the only of 11 neurocognitive measures with a significant decline. And that decline between first and last testing (mean = 19.98 +/- 0.30 years) was on raw scores, not scaled scores. Neither parents' age at onset of AD nor autopsy confirmation or offspring APOE-e4 status influenced neurocognitive results. More robust data than currently available are needed to confirm the findings of this first pilot study and to determine both the trajectory of neurocognitive decline in AD and the risks of developing AD faced by children whose parent had the disease.

No abstract