Alzheimer's disease: past, present, and future.

As we look to a world where more individuals will suffer from dementia, it is important to reflect on our past accomplishments as we work to create a better future. Attempts to develop better medications for Alzheimer's disease focus on symptomatic treatments for both cognitive and behavioral symptoms. Some progress has been made in the areas through use of cholinesterase inhibitors and novel neuroleptics. Quality of life is a central concept to improving our interventions and to developing more effective treatments based on our understanding of pathogenesis. In the past, almost hundred years since the pioneering work in Emil Kraepelin's laboratory that we are celebrating in this series of papers, we have come far but we have further to go.