Psychosocial aspects of early detection and diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative disorders leading to dementia

ABSTRACT: This paper draws attention to the difficulty of communicating the presence of biomarkers of a neurodegenerative disease or a positive screening result for cognitive impairment and recalls the role of psychologists. Received by the editorial office: 14. 7. 2026 Approved for publication: 23. 7. 2026 Early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AN) and other neurodegenerative diseases leading to the development of dementia syndrome 1 is currently (and repeatedly) being addressed in the Czech Republic as well. The discriminatory capabilities of laboratory, imaging, and neuropsychological methods reveal the presence of pathology or the risk of development at increasingly early stages of these diseases and with greater accuracy (Palmqvist et al., 2024). In an extreme case, people may thus learn of a diagnosis of a neurodegenerative disease at a time when they experience no difficulties and still appear healthy to others (Schindler & Wolk, 2026). At the same time, information campaigns in the media are increasing awareness of the clinical presentations of dementia, and, also owing to the increasing prevalence of dementia in the aging population, people have more personal experience of the course of various diseases in their loved ones. Including awareness of the absence of causal treatment and the options for symptomatic treatment that is only temporarily or partially effective at present. Although the prospects for causal treatment continue to improve, it can be assumed that, at least initially, it will tend to be intended only for narrowly defined groups. These circumstances give rise to some difficult issues that we have been reflecting on for many years (among others, Štěpánková & Kopeček, 2014), but that will become increasingly pressing until effective treatment is available.