Algeria: Amani Adami and her Insights

Hello, My name is Amani Adami, I'm an 18 year old English student from Algeria, with a highschool degree in foreign languages, I work as a volunteer translator for non-profits and i'm a passionate member in the children and youth major group for the United Nations, I love writing and i work on becoming a full time self published writer specifically writing for causes related to health, environment and justice, in my freetime I enjoy reading, gaming and playing chess.

Reviewed Article: What is Alzheimer's disease? An analysis of nosological perspectives from the 20th and 21st centuries,written by Nicolas Villain and Robin Michalon.

Main Argument & Findings:

The main argument of the review article I read is the history of defining Alzheimer's disease among professionals, and the debate that lasted over 100 years around it. The article reviews and describes three main time periods of the debate:

The early 1900s: The period where Alzheimer himself thought that the best way to describe the disease was through the biological brain damage due to the amyloid buildup in the brain plus the symptoms that the patient expresses, like memory loss and character changes. Meanwhile, other medical professionals like Oskar Fischer and Emil Kraepelin believed that Alzheimer’s is best described through the physical brain damage only, because the symptoms that patients experience could easily be misinterpreted as old age dementia.

1960s–1980s: The Alzheimer’s debate shifted towards the effects of the brain damage through quantity (meaning the amount of damage that the brain suffers) or through quality (meaning the exact type of brain damage itself). Another question during this period was whether Alzheimer’s could be considered one disease or if it has many subtypes.

21st century (currently): The United States Alzheimer’s Association defines AD only by the physical brain damage caused by amyloid buildup, drifting away from the historical definition related to patient symptoms and from other causes of brain damage like tau tangles. Conversely, the clinicobiological proposal of the International Working Group remains aligned with the historical definition of AD, including both the physical brain damage and the experienced symptoms.

Importance for Youth:

I believe that the information from this article is important for the youth to acknowledge because it shows how simple yet complicated Alzheimer’s disease is. Over 100 years ago, medical professionals were able to figure out the physical causes of the illness and how protein buildup can cause the brain to slowly give up everything that a person once had. But throughout all these years, they couldn’t agree on the basis of how to describe it.

This goes to show how Alzheimer’s was and still is a moving target with no specific definition attached to it. In addition, it shows how defining diseases changes with history, people, and culture, and how debates and perspectives can shape what eventually becomes accepted as scientific fact.

What I Learned: 

I learned many things while researching this article. For example, I learned new medical terms such as “clinicopathological entity,” which means a disease that is defined by both the symptoms and the pathological features. I also learned about the history of Alzheimer’s disease and the many perspectives that went into defining it.

In addition, I realized that even a science based field such as medicine cannot rely only on facts to define a specific condition. As I mentioned before, history, people, and culture can play a big part in shaping how a disease is understood and classified.

Citations:  Blanc, F., & Hampel, H. (2024). What is Alzheimer’s disease? An analysis of nosological perspectives from the 20th and 21st centuries. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience & Mental Health, 7(1), 1–12. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38618742/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amani-adami-36b824372/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna2082006/