Book review—Slow Dancing with a Stranger: Lost and Found in the Age of Alzheimer’s”

I just finished reading, “Slow Dancing with a Stranger: Lost and Found in the Age of Alzheimer’s,” by broadcast journalist Meryl Comer.  The words demonstrated the devastating cost—personal and financial—of caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease. Comer’s husband, Dr. Harvey Gralnick, was chief of hematology and oncology at the National Institutes of Health until he received a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s at age 58.  Comer’s mother, who also had Alzheimer’s disease.

I am reading all I have time for regarding Alzheimer’s disease as I have had the unfortunate opportunity to see this disease on an up-close, personal level.  The first thing that struck me when I picked up this book was the title.  I did not see my loved one’s as strangers.  They were still my father, my mother-in-law and my uncle.  They didn’t go anywhere...they were attacked by a progressive disease that often lasts for many years.

Beyond this subjective criticism of the book, I would not criticize the emotions felt or the decision made of anyone who has a loved one subjected to this disease.  We all try to do the best we can within the constraints of our resources.  I did find it interesting that Mr. Gralnick was aggressive and the health system recommended a mental health facility to “adjust his medication”.  There are few resources available for appropriate treatment of the complicated disease process of Alzheimer’s, but her description of options tried gives her audience insight into the road traveled and the hope for a new route in the future.

Despite these observations Comer’s purpose for writing this book seems not to be to inspire false hope, but to show why Alzheimer’s disease needs to receive the same level of attention and research funding as other major diseases—diseases which have seen a decrease in mortality rates while the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease is rising (one in three people now have Alzheimer’s disease when they die). A study by researchers at Rand Corporation and other institutions calculated that the direct cost of care for people with Alzheimer's and other dementia in 2010 was $109 billion. In comparison, healthcare costs for people with heart disease was $102 billion; for people with cancer, it was $77 billion. Yet cancer research was allocated an estimated $5.4 billion (2014) in federal funds, and heart disease will get $1.2 billion — while research on Alzheimer's and other dementias comes in at only a fraction of that, at $666 million.

For more information regarding research funding see

http://report.nih.gov/categorical_spending.aspx