Experts Cautiously Optimistic on Dementia Prospects
Rebecca Wood of Alzheimer's Research Trust
People with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias will live longer in the future without severe cognitive impairment, according to most leading dementia scientists.
However, despite anticipated developments in research, the experts fear that Alzheimer’s will ‘still be with us’ in 50 years time, according to a study by Alzheimer’s Research Trust and the London School of Economics.
Chief Executive of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, Rebecca Wood, explained: “Dementia affects 820,000 people in the UK, costing our economy £23 billion each year. If we could delay the onset of Alzheimer’s by five years, we could halve the number of people who die with the disease. With the right investment in dementia research, new effective treatments may be just around the corner. Some level of cure within our lifetimes is achievable.”
There is genuine optimism among dementia researchers that research will allow better management of dementia, according to Adelina Comas-Herrera, a Research Fellow at LSE. “We have revealed a range of plausible outcomes – some modest, others transformative – for the future of dementia research,” she said. “This underlines the need to maintain growth in investment in dementia research to maximise the chances of effective new treatments emerging swiftly.”
