Patients can cope with learning their Alzheimer's risks

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AMNews.com

Genetic testing results can alarm patients, but distress levels are not clinically significant, a new study says.
By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. Posted Aug. 7.


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Alzheimer's disease is unpreventable and largely untreatable. Though genetic testing can tell patients if they have an elevated risk of developing the condition, the expert consensus has been that disclosing such information would distress patients while giving them no medical benefit.

That consensus may be wrong, according to a study in the July 16 New England Journal of Medicine (content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/361/3/245/).

More than 160 patients whose parents had Alzheimer's disease were offered genotyping results for apolipoprotein E, or APOE, which is associated with increased susceptibility to the disease. There was no significant difference in pre- and post-test disclosure measures of anxiety, depression or distress up to one year, the study found.

The authors said the data "support the psychological safety of disclosing data regarding genetic-counseling protocols to screened adult children of patients with Alzheimer's disease who request such information."

The findings could change medical professionals' minds about whether patients can handle these potentially life-changing test results, said Angela M. Trepanier, immediate past president of the National Society of Genetic Counselors. She was not involved in the study.

"The study takes this test off the taboo list and makes it something to....read all of Learn Alzheimer's risks,