THE RESPONSE OF ELDERLY COMMUNITY RESIDENTS TO REQUEST FOR BRAIN DONATION - AN INTERIM-REPORT

Normal neurohistology of the elderly brain is largely unstudied and unknown. Normal brains are essential as controls for postmortem investigations in longitudinal, prospective studies which aim to document and clarify the natural history of Alzheimer's disease. Ethically, consent should be sought from these subjects and their relatives at the beginning of such studies. This article reports the responses of normal and demented elderly community residents to request for brain donation. Eighty-five per cent of the normal control group and 83% of incident cases of dementia signed declarations of intent for postmortem. During the first year of brain collection, 24 of 33 donated brains have been successfully collected at postmortem. The responses and attitudes of the subjects and their relatives and the value of obtaining such consent are discussed.