Diagnosis: Presenile Dementia?

Ira at Daily Kos quotes a letter published recently in The Atlantic Monthly:

Bush's problem cannot be 'a learning disability, a reading problem, [or] dyslexia,' because patients with those problems have always had them. Slowly developing cognitive deficits, as demonstrated so clearly by the President, can represent only one diagnosis, and that is 'presenile dementia'! Presenile dementia is best described to nonmedical persons as a fairly typical Alzheimer's situation that develops significantly earlier in life, well before what is usually considered old age. It runs about the same course as typical senile dementias, such as classical Alzheimer's -- to incapacitation and, eventually, death, as with President Ronald Reagan, but at a relatively earlier age. President Bush's 'mangled' words are a demonstration of what physicians call 'confabulation,' and are almost specific to the diagnosis of a true dementia. Bush should immediately be given the advantage of a considered professional diagnosis, and started on drugs that offer the possibility of retarding the slow but inexorable course of the disease.

Joseph M. Price, M.D.
Carsonville, Mich.

Could there be something to this? The argument is that the president was actually an articulate, skilled debater and public speaker in his forties, but his skills have deteriorated since that time.

It's a sad and scary thought. Sadder and scarier might be that something like this could be known to the president and kept hidden. FDR and JFK both hid serious illness from the American public in order to present images of vitality and strength and to maintain their power in office. Hiding a debilitating illness, however, should never be in the presidential playbook.

If the president is truly ailing, he should be given the best care immediately, as Dr. Price urges. If there's even any question, he should be given a complete medical examination. He owes it to himself, his family and his country to tend to his health before politics.

And if he is truly suffering from presenile dementia, President Bush owes it to himself, his family and his country to step aside, ask for our understanding and our prayers, and take care of himself. There is no weakness in seeking medical care for such an illness.

Please, Mr. President, at least visit a doctor. Find out for sure. Be healthy. Politics can wait. Election or not, this is the most important thing for you right now.