New Treatment Capable Of Delaying Dementia Onset Urgently Required
by Pharmacy Life - Published on 21 September 2015
A treatment capable of delaying the onset of dementia by five years would reduce the number of dementia cases by a third. That’s just one of the findings of research carried out by
Alzheimer’s Research UK, which also revealed that one in three people born this year will develop the condition during their lifetime.
The findings, revealed today -
World Alzheimer’s Day - foreshadow a looming national health crisis as the UK population ages, and underlines the need for global efforts to develop new treatments to succeed.
Dementia affects 850,000 people in the UK and is caused by brain diseases, most commonly Alzheimer’s, which result in
the loss of brain cells and impair the brain’s ability to function properly. Early symptoms can include problems with memory and thinking, but as brain cell death becomes more widespread, physical functions such as walking and even swallowing can be affected. Currently
there are no treatments able to stop or slow Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias in their tracks.
The latest research, commissioned by Alzheimer’s Research UK and carried out by the Office of Health Economics, set out to calculate the number of people born today who could be expected develop the condition during their lifetime. The analysis took into account life expectancy estimates for people born in 2015, as well as estimates of dementia incidence in men and women of different ages. The report estimates that:
• 32 per cent of people born in the UK 2015, or one in three, will develop dementia during their lifetime
• 27 per cent of males born in 2015 will develop the condition
• 37 per cent of females born in 2015 will develop the condition