This event will explore the phenomenon of paradoxical lucidity and Alzheimer’s disease, reflecting on a new awareness of the condition.
Alzheimer’s is a structural, neurodegenerative disorder resulting in the progressive and permanent loss of memory, identity and autonomy. This is the present paradigm. But how can this paradigm stand when many patients, deep into the condition, have episodes of lucidity, with clear re-connections to their “former” selves?
Please join us as Dr. Jason Karlawish guides us through an exploration of the phenomenon of paradoxical lucidity and its implications for Alzheimer patients, caregivers, and their physicians.
As always, sharing your personal experiences and insights with colleagues enriches the experience of participating in the Doctors’ Lounge series.
Dr. Karlawish is a professor of medicine, medical ethics and health policy, and neurology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.
He is board-certified in geriatric medicine. He is director of the Penn Program on Precision Medicine for the Brain (P3MB), co-associate director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and co-director of the Penn Memory Center. He is also director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center’s Outreach, Recruitment and Education Core.
His research focuses on aging, neuroethics and policy. He has investigated issues in dementia drug development, informed consent, paradoxical lucidity and theory of mind in dementia, research and treatment decision-making, and voting by persons living with dementia.
He is the executive producer of the Age of Aging, a podcast dedicated to exploring living well with an aging mind. He is the author of The Problem of Alzheimer’s: How Science, Culture and Politics Turned a Rare Disease Into a Crisis and What We Can Do About It, and the novel Open Wound: The Tragic Obsession of Dr. William Beaumont.