Diagnosis of Aminoff Suffering Syndrome in Advanced Alzheimer’s Disease and End-of-Life: First 10 Years

The life of patients with end-stage dementia is filled with grief, secretion and stench, suppuration and wounds, crying, screaming or silent pain. This appears to be the natural and essential path of end-stage disease and aging. Its diagnosis could reduce the suffering of patients at the end of life by adequate medical and nursing care. The MSSE is the first objective clinical tool for the evaluation of suffering levels in advanced dementia. The Aminoff Suffering Syndrome in advanced Alzheimer's disease and end-of-life is characterized by a high Mini Suffering State Examination (MSSE) scale score, less than 6 months of survival, irreversible and intractable aggravation of suffering and actively dying medical condition until demise. The Aminoff Suffering Syndrome was first defined by us, presented and published 10 years ago at the 10th International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (Madrid, 2007). Its diagnosis in end-of-life was performed by measuring the suffering level of patients by evaluating the Mini Suffering State Examination (MSSE) scale score. A high MSSE scale score with a range of 7 - 10 indicates a high level of suffering and reflects the severity of the medical condition in advanced dementia. The treatment of patients with Aminoff Suffering Syndrome at the end of life is a great challenge to medical and nursing personnel. The diagnosis of Aminoff Suffering Syndrome opens new horizons in the approach to anguish at end-of-life and provides a novel method for identifying advanced Alzheimer’s disease patients who require immediate palliative treatment. Looking ahead, the authors suggest that all medical researchers involved in geriatric care perform experimental prospective studies in their respective clinical settings.