CONFERENCE REPORTER
At the 2026 Jersey City Psychiatry Conference, George Grossberg, MD, the Henry and Amelia Nasrallah Professor in Geriatric Psychiatry at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, discussed the gap between dementia science and everyday clinical practice. He also outlined how clinicians should use the newly available blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer disease.
Grossberg said the biggest gap has been imprecise diagnosis. Patients are often referred with labels such as “dementia” or “senile dementia,” or their symptoms are put down to age-related cognitive change.
“Now we are getting better and better at more precisely diagnosing, not just to say dementia, but what type of dementia does Mrs Jones have? Once you know what you’re dealing with more specifically, then you can target more appropriate therapy,” Grossberg said.
Biomarkers Narrowing the Gap
He credited the narrowing gap to the arrival of 3 FDA-cleared blood-based biomarkers in a little more than a year. The first, the one most widely used, was cleared in May 2025.1 As clinicians learn to use these tests appropriately, Grossberg expects fewer “wastebasket” diagnoses and more specific ones.