CONy 2021 | The need for different approaches in the treatment of dementia

Peter Whitehouse, MD, PhD, of The Taos Institute, Chagrin Falls, OH, argues for a more varied and holistic approach in treating Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and dementia. For AD, Prof. Whitehouse stresses the need to develop therapies underpinned by hypotheses other than the amyloid hypothesis, such as those implicating neurofibrillary tangles, neuroinflammation, and impaired metabolism. More generally, dementia is an umbrella term that encompasses an array of distinct disorders. Therefore, it is unfeasible to suggest that a “silver bullet” based on a single molecular target may uniformly eradicate all of these disorders. Instead, Prof. Whitehouse advocates for a “population health” approach, which emphasizes the care of dementia patients at the population, rather than individual, level. This interview was conducted during the virtual 2021 World Congress on Controversies in Neurology (CONy) meeting.