Do People Want To Know If They Are At Risk For Alzheimer’s Disease

Genetic tests exist to identify risk for the rare inherited form of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and to predict susceptibility to the more common, late-onset form of AD, but do people want to know, and how do they react?

The answers can be found in the article published in Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. “This article addresses a major disease of tremendous impact on increasing numbers of people and documents the large psychological component that physicians and genetic counselors must be ready to address.” says Kenneth I. Berns, MD, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of Genetic Testing and Molecular Biomarkers, and Director of the University of Florida’s Genetics Institute, College of Medicine, Gainesville, FL.

In the article “To Know or Not to Know: An Update of the Literature on the Psychological and Behavioral Impact of Genetic Testing for Alzheimer Disease Risk,” (online.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/gtmb.2011.0300) B. Rahman and a team of researchers from Australia review the latest studies on whether people at risk for early-onset familial AD want to know their genetic profile and actually undertake testing, and how they tend to respond to the results.

They also evaluate the attitudes of the general population and people with a family history of late-onset AD toward testing for disease risk factors and what motivates them to undergo genetic testing.