What does recent research indicate with regard to prediction of future onset of Alzheimer’s disease in individuals? What does it indicate about prevention of the disease?

According to a research conducted by the National Institute of Health (NIH), approximately 13 million older Americans are vulnerable to Alzheimer’s disease by 2050. However, the figure might reduce with development of preventive measures (Turlejski, 2010). The recent estimates of the future prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease indicate that the figure of older persons having Alzheimer’s disease will rise as the populace ages. Notable increases in prevalence of the disease will be among people aged 85 and over. According to scientists, without preventive measures, approximately 8 million of the aged population will have Alzheimer by mid-century (Ramírez, Blázquez, Pulgar, Guzmán, & Ceballos, 2005). These projections raise a concern to develop effective measures to avert the prevalence.

Various researches in progress attempt to deal with the projected increase in cases of Alzheimer’s disease. Other studies include the scrutiny of estrogen and antioxidants in reducing cases of the disease (Turlejski, 2010). The NIH research indicates that vitamin E, which is an antioxidant, will significantly reduce the prevalence among people with mild cognitive defects. AIDitionally, the research also compares the effectiveness of vitamin E and dopenzil, which is a current drug used in prevention of Alzheimer’s.  Underway trials are also examining the usefulness of naproxen and celecoxib, an anti-inflammatory drug, in alleviating symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. The trials also indicated that naproxen and celecoxib might substantially reduce Alzheimer’s risk among individuals with a family history of dementia (Ramírez, Blázquez, Pulgar, Guzmán, & Ceballos, 2005). There are possibilities that the effect of estrogen INSERTment therapy in mitigating the disorder, among women having a family history of Alzheimer’s disease, can prevent elderly women from developing the disease. These studies indicate that there are chances of future prevention of the disease.

What are the characteristics of Autism? What are the diagnostic criteria? What accommodations in elementary and miIDle school help students with autistic cognitive and language impairments?

Characteristics or symptoms of autism vary from mild to severe (Turlejski, 2010). They might emerge during infancy or after few months or years. The severities of the symptom increases with age and sometimes cause children to lose the acquired language skills. Notably, children having autism are likely to have varying behavioral patterns. However, there exist common characteristics possessed by all children suffering from the condition. Social symptoms include failure to answer back when called, poor eye contact, occasionally appearing not to hear, resistance to cuIDling or holding and being unaware of other children or persons feelings (Turlejski, 2010). Language symptoms that indicate the condition include commencing talking at later age of more than 2 years, loses in initially attained capability of saying words or sentences, inability to make eye contact when requesting, abnormal speaking patterns, inability to maintain and commence conversations and word or phrase repetition. Behavioral symptoms include repeating movements such as rocking, development of rituals or routines, constant movements, fascination by moving parts of an object such as wheels and abnormal sensitivity to light. The DSM-IV-TR criteria describe the diagnosis of the disorder (Turlejski, 2010). In these criteria, six signs that include two qualitative impairment signs in social interaction, one symptom in communication and one symptom of repetitive behavior diagnose the disease in individuals.

Elementary and miIDle schools have various modifications to accommodate autistic children in their educational setting to facilitate learning. The modifications include developing and using of visuals for instructions. This modification takes various forms such as highlighting key information, using visual schedules and color-coding of information to issue instructions to autistic children. Teachers or instructors in elementary schools also interact with the autistic students through social stories and scripts (Turlejski, 2010). Fundamentally, schools are conducting autism training for all teachers that get in touch with autistic students. The non-autistic students are also taught on treating their fellow counterparts in order to accommodate them in the normal learning environment and reduce stigmatization (Turlejski, 2010).

References

Ramírez, B., Blázquez, C., Pulgar, T., Guzmán, M., & Ceballos, M. (2005). Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology by Cannabinoids: Neuroprotection Mediated by Blockade of Microglial Activation. The Journal of Neuroscience, 67-90.

Turlejski, K. (2010). Focus on autism. Acta Neurobiol Experimentalis , 117-118.