Are There Different Types Of Alzheimer's Disease?

May 4, 2009 -- Question: Are there different types of Alzheimer's disease?

Answer: There are basically two types of Alzheimer's disease: the rare familial form, which is entirely genetic, and the more common form, which we refer to as sporadic. The genetic form can be tested for with a blood test, but only represents about 1-3 percent of all of Alzheimer's.

Most people with Alzheimer's have what we call sporadic Alzheimer's, and we use this term because we believe there will be genes discovered to explain this form, but we haven't discovered them yet.