An estimated 60% of patients suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, or AD, also have impaired hearing, but yet patients with AD are some of the least likely to get treatment for hearing loss. This is for several reasons. First, caregivers may not realize that the patient is suffering from hearing loss because the symptoms that would point to hearing loss are often also symptoms of AD.
Even when hearing loss in AD patients is identified, however, patients with Alzheimer’s Disease do not always get the help that they need. This is because they have traditionally have seen as difficult to test for hearing and other problems. Because of negative patterns of behavior that are normally a product of AD, caregivers and doctors have the negative expectation that certain noncompliant behaviors will result when trying to test these patients.
However, one study that had caregivers monitor the patient’s behaviors before and after receiving a hearing aid found that the aid greatly reduced the incidence of problem behaviors among AD patient. After having the hearing aid for several weeks, a large majority of the caregivers found that problem behaviors diminished significantly or completely stopped. Some caregivers reported that after receiving the hearing aid, the patient actually was more likely to interact with them and even seem to enjoy engaging in conversation. These patients were also reported as being more alert to what was happening around them.