Alzheimer’s in family boosts chances of developing disease

If both of your parents were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, you may have an increased risk of developing the disorder compared with the general population, according to a report in the Archives of Neurology.

Because Alzheimer’s disease is so common in the general population, it is not uncommon for both spouses to develop the disease. Offspring of two such affected individuals would presumably carry a higher burden of these Alzheimer’s disease-associated genes, the study reported.

University of Washington, Seattle, researchers studied the frequency of Alzheimer’s disease in adult children of 111 families in which both parents had been clinically diagnosed with the disease. Ages at onset of dementia were also noted.

Of the 297 offspring who reached adulthood, 22.6% developed Alzheimer’s compared with an estimated 6% to 13% of the general population.

Having additional family members with Alzheimer’s disease did not increase the risk of developing the disease, but was associated with a younger age at onset for those who did develop the illness.