Closing the Diagnostic Gap in Dementia With Blood-Based Biomarkers
At the 2026 Jersey City Psychiatry Conference, Dr. George Grossberg emphasized the importance of using new FDA-cleared blood-based biomarkers to improve the precision of dementia diagnoses. He cautioned that these tests should be reserved for patients with objective cognitive impairment rather than as general screening tools.
Why it matters
The adoption of blood-based biomarkers represents a major shift in Alzheimer's diagnostics, potentially reducing misdiagnosis and enabling more targeted therapeutic interventions.
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
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