Living with Dementia > Alzheimer's Stages

Stages of Alzheimer's Disease
Experts have documented common patterns of symptom progression that occur in many individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and developed several methods of “staging” based on these patterns.

Staging systems provide useful frames of reference for understanding how the disease may unfold and for making future plans. But it is important to note that not everyone will experience the same symptoms or progress at the same rate. People with Alzheimer’s die an average of four to six years after diagnosis, but the duration of the disease can vary from three to 20 years.

Within this framework, we have noted symptoms that correspond to the widely used general divisions of early stage, moderate stage and late stage categories.

Young Onset
In addition to these stages is a rapidly growing category of person's with Young Onset. Young Onset is Alzheimer’s disease that affects people who are under age 65. Many people with Young Onset are in their 40s and 50s.

Up to 10 percent of people with Alzheimer’s have Young Onset. In the United States, that’s about 400,000 people.