Millions against widespread dementia

Research project: drug against dementia

06/22/2014

Britain has made further efforts in the fight against dementia. Around 20 million euros were provided by the government to support a research project to develop an effective drug for the common disease.

British government provides around 20 million euros
Britain is making further efforts in the fight against dementia. With £ 16 million - around € 20 million - a research project led by the University of Cardiff in Wales has been launched to develop an effective drug for the common disease, the news agency dpa reported. Last year, Britain used its G8 presidency to put dementia on the international agenda.

Reduce the economic costs of dementia
According to calculations by the British government, the economic costs of dementia could be drastically reduced if the outbreak of the disease could be delayed by three years. In the UK alone, that would save five billion pounds of healthcare costs a year. Under the leadership of researchers in Cardiff, the study will involve two million people worldwide. It is therefore one of the largest dementia studies in the history of science. „We have to consider that as a disease and not as a natural condition“, so Prime Minister David Cameron loud dpa. At a dementia summit last year, governments and researchers in London committed to finding an effective treatment for dementia by 2025.

1.4 million dementia patients in Germany
In Germany, according to the data of the German Society of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Neurology, about 1.4 million people are affected by dementia. The majority of patients suffer from Alzheimer's. Since dementia is one of the typical age-related diseases and people are getting older, demographic change is expected to increase the number of people with dementia. (Ad)