>there will still be plenty of research to do on how to motivate patient behavior in
a) seeking the test,
b) acting on the results of the test in a rational way,
and
c) not piling up other health risks meanwhile.
Given a disease with no cure or treatment, it may actually be rational to NOT seek a diagnosis (or "potential diagnosis") prior to experiencing symptoms. Put another way, what exactly would "acting on the results in a rational way" entail for someone who is currently asymptomatic?
>much work remains to be done to tackle Alzheimer disease and further prolong healthy lifespan for the patients at risk for that disease.
I think the researchers agree with that statement. Another child of your comment mentioned that this is likely more valuable to researchers than tested patients at this point, and I would agree. As the article mentioned, it is believed that treatments started earlier in the disease would be more effective, and the capacity to diagnose earlier in order to test novel agents may well be the most valuable aspect of testing at this point.
a) seeking the test,
b) acting on the results of the test in a rational way, and
c) not piling up other health risks meanwhile.
Given a disease with no cure or treatment, it may actually be rational to NOT seek a diagnosis (or "potential diagnosis") prior to experiencing symptoms. Put another way, what exactly would "acting on the results in a rational way" entail for someone who is currently asymptomatic?
>much work remains to be done to tackle Alzheimer disease and further prolong healthy lifespan for the patients at risk for that disease.
I think the researchers agree with that statement. Another child of your comment mentioned that this is likely more valuable to researchers than tested patients at this point, and I would agree. As the article mentioned, it is believed that treatments started earlier in the disease would be more effective, and the capacity to diagnose earlier in order to test novel agents may well be the most valuable aspect of testing at this point.