Uncertain progress on the fuzzy boundaries of Alzheimer's disease: reading between the guidelines.

Recently, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and Alzheimer’s Association (AA) issued new guidelines for the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related conditions [1–4]. It is important to think deeply about the lessons learned from these new efforts both in terms of their actual content and the cultural context in which they were issued. We believe that these lessons about the state of AD research are more profound than the documents themselves, and speak to broad issues concerning the relationship between science and society, aging and disease, and efforts to improve the quality of life of older people affected by age associated cognitive challenges.