Caregivers Want Quality Life for Alzheimer's Patients
Reviewed by Dr. Richard C. Roberson
Oct. 12, 2000 -- Eugene Marzuola was 57 years old and running a successful plumbing business with his wife Bebe. Then one day, 11 years ago, he suddenly couldn't remember how to drive back to his office. Today he's in a nursing home, unable to communicate or even remember to go to the bathroom. Marzuola has Alzheimer's disease.
Bebe noticed his behavior was abnormal. "He just couldn't get things together; he was confused," she tells WebMD. "He couldn't focus on things. This was unusual for him."
When they first visited a doctor in 1989, the Marzuolas thought that maybe this was the result of stress. They were referred to Myron Weiner, MD, chief of geriatric psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Weiner diagnosed the degenerative brain disease that affects 4 million Americans. If no cure or prevention is found, the American Academy of Neurology estimates that by 2050 that number will reach 14 million.
To prevent the number of cases from skyrocketing, researchers are actively investigating new drugs to treat Alzheimer's. This week, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania released a study in the journal Neurology about what drug benefits are most important to people like Mrs. Marzuola -- caregivers of victims of the disease. She can tell firsthand the necessity of improving quality of life, and the importance of caring medical professionals in dealing with the illness.
Weiner offered hope when he gave the Marzuolas a chance to participate in a trial of new Alzheimer's drugs. Mrs. Marzuola believes that one of them, Aricept, may have given her husband a few more years of lucidity. "If he hadn't taken it, he might have progressed faster," she says, adding that not even the doctors know for sure if the drug helped, because the disease affects every individual differently.
From 1991 to 1998, when he was on the drug, Marzuola could still function fairly normally, though he had to stop driving and the couple sold their business. But they were able to travel to one of his dreamed-of places -- Yellowstone National Park and the 'big sky country' of Montana.
Oct. 12, 2000 -- Eugene Marzuola was 57 years old and running a successful plumbing business with his wife Bebe. Then one day, 11 years ago, he suddenly couldn't remember how to drive back to his office. Today he's in a nursing home, unable to communicate or even remember to go to the bathroom. Marzuola has Alzheimer's disease.
Bebe noticed his behavior was abnormal. "He just couldn't get things together; he was confused," she tells WebMD. "He couldn't focus on things. This was unusual for him."
When they first visited a doctor in 1989, the Marzuolas thought that maybe this was the result of stress. They were referred to Myron Weiner, MD, chief of geriatric psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Weiner diagnosed the degenerative brain disease that affects 4 million Americans. If no cure or prevention is found, the American Academy of Neurology estimates that by 2050 that number will reach 14 million.
To prevent the number of cases from skyrocketing, researchers are actively investigating new drugs to treat Alzheimer's. This week, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania released a study in the journal Neurology about what drug benefits are most important to people like Mrs. Marzuola -- caregivers of victims of the disease. She can tell firsthand the necessity of improving quality of life, and the importance of caring medical professionals in dealing with the illness.
Weiner offered hope when he gave the Marzuolas a chance to participate in a trial of new Alzheimer's drugs. Mrs. Marzuola believes that one of them, Aricept, may have given her husband a few more years of lucidity. "If he hadn't taken it, he might have progressed faster," she says, adding that not even the doctors know for sure if the drug helped, because the disease affects every individual differently.
From 1991 to 1998, when he was on the drug, Marzuola could still function fairly normally, though he had to stop driving and the couple sold their business. But they were able to travel to one of his dreamed-of places -- Yellowstone National Park and the 'big sky country' of Montana.
SHARE
