[Palliative care and Alzheimer disease]

Although end-of-life care is a relatively common option for patients with terminal cancer, it has become available only recently for patients with Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is a chronic process of gradual deterioration of cognitive ability and the resulting deficits in activities of daily living. The chronic disease course of Alzheimer's disease gives to the clinician the opportunity to look ahead and plan for the final stages of care. This article presents a review of palliative care interventions for patients with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. End-of-life care for individuals with end-stage Alzheimer's disease is increasingly important because of the increasing number of patients with this disease. However, there are barriers to providing high-quality end-of-life care. Currently, palliative care is not optimal for Alzheimer's patients. Health care systems and clinicians should make efforts to improve the suffering of patients with this disease and their caregivers.