Alzheimer's Takes a Financial Toll Long Before Diagnosis, Study Finds (nytimes.com) 49
Long before people develop dementia, they often begin falling behind on mortgage payments, credit card bills and other financial obligations, new research shows. The New York Times: A team of economists and medical experts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Georgetown University combined Medicare records with data from Equifax, the credit bureau, to study how people's borrowing behavior changed [PDF] in the years before and after a diagnosis of Alzheimer's or a similar disorder. What they found was striking: Credit scores among people who later develop dementia begin falling sharply long before their disease is formally identified. A year before diagnosis, these people were 17.2 percent more likely to be delinquent on their mortgage payments than before the onset of the disease, and 34.3 percent more likely to be delinquent on their credit card bills. The issues start even earlier: The study finds evidence of people falling behind on their debts five years before diagnosis.
"The results are striking in both their clarity and their consistency," said Carole Roan Gresenz, a Georgetown University economist who was one of the study's authors. Credit scores and delinquencies, she said, "consistently worsen over time as diagnosis approaches, and so it literally mirrors the changes in cognitive decline that we're observing." The research adds to a growing body of work documenting what many Alzheimer's patients and their families already know: Decision-making, including on financial matters, can begin to deteriorate long before a diagnosis is made or even suspected. People who are starting to experience cognitive decline may miss payments, make impulsive purchases or put money into risky investments they would not have considered before the disease.
"The results are striking in both their clarity and their consistency," said Carole Roan Gresenz, a Georgetown University economist who was one of the study's authors. Credit scores and delinquencies, she said, "consistently worsen over time as diagnosis approaches, and so it literally mirrors the changes in cognitive decline that we're observing." The research adds to a growing body of work documenting what many Alzheimer's patients and their families already know: Decision-making, including on financial matters, can begin to deteriorate long before a diagnosis is made or even suspected. People who are starting to experience cognitive decline may miss payments, make impulsive purchases or put money into risky investments they would not have considered before the disease.
force majeur (Score:1)
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"This is not the joke you were looking for", with the usual apologies to Obi-Wan.
Care to explain? Or maybe your comment was some sort of diagnostic test of readers' mental acuity?
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In the case of Alzheimer's, it is a forseeable event [investopedia.com] since the symptoms would have been apparent years before the person started missing their payments. The credit card company, or any company, could rightfully claim the person should have taken steps for an outside entity to take care of that person's financial obligations.
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Ads for Alzheimer's drugs, based on credit changes (Score:2)
in 3, 2, 1, ...
And they will be just as welcomed as the ads that supposedly predicted a teenage girl's pregnancy [medium.com].
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Did you know Prevagen (R) is an OTC brain health supplement clinically shown to be safe and to improve memory and support brain function!
Re:Ads for Alzheimer's drugs, based on credit chan (Score:4, Informative)
Ref: https://www.webmd.com/healthy-... [webmd.com]
Stay safe, always check actual medical sites for claims made by meds.
Sure does (Score:3, Funny)
Look what it did to the USA; their Trump supporters don't even remember what he contradicted himself with hours before.
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You just indicated you are a fool. Is there any difference you can't find a false equivalence with? I doubt you can't invent one to avoid critical thinking.
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25? with my UID? I'd have to have been a baby when I created the account.
You can't see the difference between nicotine and a shot in the head; I never said smoking wasn't bad for you, I'm just able to see that fast a metal cone in the brain is far worse. I'll choose 13% odds of cancer decades from now instead.
As far as some corruption and less than ideal compromises, that is the actual reality of all forms of government and always will be until a aliens or robots takes over completely... and even so, you'l
You can say that again (Score:5, Informative)
Re:You can say that again (Score:5, Informative)
Having had to take over my mother's life was quite the ordeal. Started noticing problems when I found an unpaid bill sitting on the heater in the garage. Then things would go missing, and she wouldn't know where they were, but show up again in some random place later. Then found her health insurance had lapsed due to failure to pay. Lucky the company was great to work with and I was able to reinstate the policy. Started to search the house every time I stopped by to make sure mail wasn't squirreled away somewhere. She is doing well in memory care now, but it took me a long time to find all the bits of her life she no longer remembers.
Been there done that. The paranoid delusions are the worst. Things are not just missing, someone must have taken them....
It is a terrible thing to watch, and a terrible thing to experience as a caregiver. Wishing you and your mom all the best.
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Worse than the paranoid delusions is when you have to make it worse by gaslighting them.
When the time comes to hide the credit cards and car keys. And it'll upset them if you admit that's what you're doing, so you lie and try to redirect them.
And eventually you get to feel badly for doing what you had to do and for being relieved when it's over.
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And eventually you get to feel badly for doing what you had to do and for being relieved when it's over.
This is a painful part, but one thing that can help a bit is to remember that the person you're doing it to isn't the person you knew before; and you're doing it for both their benefit (even though it may not seem like it to them), and also for your own sanity and that of those around the person/yourself. This disease is a terrible burden on everyone, both physically and mentally. One of the most difficult things to see is the person basically "just existing", and having no real (or quality) life in the lat
*feel no shame (Score:2)
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As for being relieved "when it's over": no one should feel shame in that, and nobody, nobody else that hasn't lived through it themselves should be judging anyone else that has had to live through that hell.
Truth. Would mod you up if I had not posted.
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"As for being relieved "when it's over": no one should feel same in that, and nobody, nobody else that hasn't lived through it themselves should be judging anyone else that has had to live through that hell"
A very good friend just went through that, spent about 3 years being the sole caregiver for her 90+ yr old mother who went from being a somewhat forgetful old lady to forgetting everyone incl children & grandkids except the daughter who was caring for her & the last of their many dogs.
For roughly
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As for being relieved "when it's over": no one should feel shame in that, and nobody, nobody else that hasn't lived through it themselves should be judging anyone else that has had to live through that hell.
I wholeheartedly agree, they have the emotions of a child whist still thinking that they have the competence of an adult.
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And eventually you get to feel badly for doing what you had to do and for being relieved when it's over.
Because we talked about these things while we were all competent, I know my mom did not want to live like she did the last year of her life, but there was nothing she or I could do about it. I also know that had she been in her normal state of mind she would have been sad about the effect on me of watching and having no control.
It is too late for mom, but with MAID here in Canada there is hope for people who find themselves in the same situation in the future. I absolutely do not want to live (and die)
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I think by the time I would want MAID I'd no longer be competent to consent to it. I'm glad it's there for others.
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I think by the time I would want MAID I'd no longer be competent to consent to it. I'm glad it's there for others.
Yes, that is the important part about potential reforms being considered is being able to pre-consent before that happens. The current discussion about mental illness as a valid qualification is a distraction from this needed change IMHO. I prefer to pass on the whole "not able to consent" part.
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> that is the important part about potential reforms being considered is being able to pre-consent before that happens.
I've thought about that, and my position is pretty much that if I no longer understand that it's coming, that's when it should be coming. Just OD me while I sleep.
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"MAID here in Canada"
how common is this? what's being done to make sure people aren't being pressured into it by callous relatives?
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"MAID here in Canada" how common is this? what's being done to make sure people aren't being pressured into it by callous relatives?
If you ask the detractors they will say there is no protection for vulnerable people. I agree it is important to have appropriate checks and balances in place and I'm certainly open to suggestions for improvement, but in the end it is still of great importance to myself and others that in the end we be in control of our own destiny. Fortunately our Supreme Court has recognized that principle, so now it is just down to the politicians to get the details right. It is a process and will take some time to ev
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Worse than the paranoid delusions is when you have to make it worse by gaslighting them.
My father has dementia, he thinks the respite workers were hire are stealing his things as well, it's interesting that others have the same experience. When you say "gaslighting" though, that is a very specific term related to behavioral issues of personality disordered people who deliberately induce Alzheimer symptoms in mentally healthy people in an attempt to make them question their own reality. It's a cognitive attack, I'm pretty certain this is not what you mean, is it?
When the time comes to hide the credit cards and car keys. And it'll upset them if you admit that's what you're doing, so you lie and try to redirect them.
I find it pointless lying abou
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>He never remembers why he is angry
This is the kind of thing we worked to avoid - emotional states cause changes in your blood chemistry which can continue even if you've forgotten why you had those emotions in the first place.
The lies were for the moment, to redirect away from a problem "I want to go out, where are my keys?" because people with dementia often get 'on rails', stuck on a thought and agitated if you block them outright.
I can see it now (Score:2)
And I'm only half joking; that could actually be a real thing. I imagine that many neurodegenerative diseases have similar issues that credit bureaus would probably notice way sooner.
well... (Score:2)
Obvious symptoms (Score:5, Funny)
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> The most common symptom of dementia ...
According to Car & Driver magazine, an early sign of dementia is owning a German automobile - without an extended warranty.
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The most common symptom of dementia - apart from the red hats - is donating money to churches and billionaires.
Sadly the churches and billionaires seem to feel that silencing those who might question their marketing strategies, is a much larger problem.
It's denial (Score:4, Informative)
I've seen it, up close. Nobody wants to acknowledge mental decline and you're apparently an asshole if you try to get people to accept it so proper care steps can be taken.
Apparently it's preferred to be 'compassionate' and ignore the situation until you need to an ambulance. Maybe more than once. /still pissed
Can be Ruinous (Score:5, Insightful)
I've seen this first-hand. A friend of mine is a 3rd generation descendent of what was at one time a very wealthy family. His father had always managed the family money and nobody else had access to the accounts. His father was diagnosed with dementia shortly after a car accident, and that's when they discovered he had wasted away millions of dollars on bad investments. There was basically nothing left. My friend had to deal for years with extended family suing his father (who by that point was non-verbal) for mismanaging various family trusts. It wasn't malicious- he had just lost his ability to handle their affairs. The only saving grace for his mother was that they owned a valuable home outright, which was enough to purchase a modest home and enough for her to live on (though nowhere near their former lifestyle).
I guess the moral of the story is that it's dangerous to have a single person with exclusive access to a family's finances. If at all possible, a spouse, child, relative, or family friend should have some visibility and ability to take over if there are signs of diminished capacity.
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My stepdad has gone to a nursing home now with advanced dementia, but not before leaving my mom destitute. He somehow pissed away $100k in about 5 years. Mom had no idea until it was too late and the money was gone.
Years later I'm still trying to straighten out the the financial shit show he created.
Cognitive deficits correlate ... (Score:2)
... with spending discipline which is a specific form of abstract long-term planning. As an ADHD candidate I know this problem. Dementia is an overall decline in cognitive ability, it makes sense that spending and investment priorities shift once people (subconsciously) notice the shift/decline in brain function.
Baseline anxiety should rise too which in turn might shift priorities in general. When you feel your whole life falling apart, mortgage and credit payment do lose their urgency. Understandable.
just look at biden (Score:1)
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I wonder what is wrong, psychologically, with people like you who are obviously driven to believe the stupidest things in order to avoid cognitive dissonance with their incredibly stupid actions.
It's amazing to me that you can bring yourself to post shit like that when your convicted felon god just spend 30 minutes in a rambling rage like he was sundowning hard.
And then you have the Apprentice producer saying, "Yeah, he was always like that, we had to fix it up in post and I'm sorry we helped build him up a
Any dementia (Score:1)
Alzheimer's gets all the press, but there are dozens of different classifications of dementia with varying times from diagnosis to death. Alz. has a long period and it's common so I understand that; but let's not forget about the rest and yes I've got personal experience. My late mother had one of those non-Alz forms, with about 4 years from diagnosis to death and 1.5 years of skilled care at the end. And yes, the financial impact was there before diagnosis. She had worked in accounting, and was a stic
Banks et al will find a way to profit from this (Score:2)
more exorbitant service charges, higher interest rates & mandatory insurance
Great News! (Score:2)
This will save me a ton of time, since instead of going for doctor exams, I can just check my credit score.
Now, health care needs your credit history? (Score:2)