Disease Interception in neurodegenerative diseases

Disease Interception is an emerging medical paradigm that seeks to identify and treat conditions such as neurodegenerative diseases before the onset of clinical symptoms. This factsheet reviews the concept of disease interception from an ethical perspective. While the approach promises to reduce suffering, delay or prevent illness, and empower proactive health management, it also raises profound questions. Disease Interception challenges conventional distinctions between health, illness, and disease by creating a category of “healthy yet diseased” individuals who are treated despite the absence of symptoms. This shift risks overmedicalization, psychological burdens, and erosion of patient autonomy, especially when technological mediation—through AI, biomarkers, and predictive analytics—reshapes medical decision-making and embeds future health priorities over present well-being. Ethical concerns include transparency, informed consent, the right to non-knowledge, and responsibility dynamics between patients, clinicians, and technological systems. As predictive medicine advances, careful ethical scrutiny will be required to balance the promise of early intervention with respect for autonomy, justice, and the lived experience of health.