If we can find these individuals early enough, we\u2019ll have a better chance of seeing if the drugs are effective<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nHe added: \u201cThe problem with clinical trials is that by necessity they often recruit patients with a diagnosis, but we know that by this point they are already some way down the road and their condition cannot be stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we can find these individuals early enough, we\u2019ll have a better chance of seeing if the drugs are effective.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the study published in Alzheimer\u2019s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer\u2019s Association, researchers analysed data from the UK Biobank database and found impairment in several areas, such as problem solving and number recall, across a range of conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Currently there are very few effective treatments for dementia or other neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Experts suggest this is partly because these conditions are often only diagnosed once symptoms appear, whereas the underlying issue may have begun years \u2013 even decades \u2013 earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This means that by the time patients take part in clinical trials, it could already be too late in the disease process to alter its course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until now, it has been unclear whether it could be possible to detect changes in brain function before the onset of symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As well as collecting information on health and disease diagnoses, UK Biobank collected data from a range of tests including problem solving, memory, reaction times and grip strength, as well as data on weight loss and gain and on the number of falls experienced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This allowed researchers to see whether any signs were present at baseline \u2013 when measurements were first collected between five and nine years before diagnosis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
People who went on to develop Alzheimer\u2019s scored more poorly compared with healthy individuals when it came to problem solving tasks, reaction times, remembering lists of numbers, prospective memory (our ability to remember to do something later on) and pair matching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was also the case for people who developed a rarer form of dementia known as frontotemporal dementia, the researchers found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the study, people who went on to develop Alzheimer\u2019s were more likely than healthy adults to have had a fall in the previous 12 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scientists found that for every condition studied \u2013 including Parkinson\u2019s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies \u2013 patients reported poorer overall health at the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The research was funded by the Medical Research Council with support from the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s now more important than ever that NHS services reflect our growing understanding of the importance of detection and early diagnosis<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nDavid Thomas, head of policy at Alzheimer\u2019s Research UK, said: \u201cIt is increasingly clear that the best chance to affect the course of the diseases which cause dementia lies in intervening at their earliest stages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHealth services don\u2019t routinely offer the tests needed to detect changes in brain function that happen before symptoms are noticeable, like those alluded to in this study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe must ensure that people with dementia don\u2019t fall through the cracks at a time when treatment or risk-reduction interventions are most likely to be effective.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It may be possible to detect signs of dementia as early as nine years before diagnosis, new research suggests. The findings raise the prospect that in the future at-risk patients could be screened to help identify those who might benefit from early interventions to reduce their risk of developing dementia-related diseases. They could also help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[7405,7750,850,7960,8924,8773,9088,7396,2165,6229,8205,11403,10537,6144,12310,3577,12634,6622,5423,3570,7968,13228,5807,9162,7294,8206,12605,214,6348,3954,594],"class_list":["post-26467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-fitness","tag-alzheimer","tag-blood-pressure","tag-cambridge","tag-case","tag-chance","tag-cognitive","tag-container","tag-data","tag-david-thomas","tag-dementia","tag-diagnosis","tag-disease","tag-doctor","tag-drugs","tag-exercise","tag-future","tag-health","tag-high-blood-pressure","tag-lies","tag-nhs","tag-nine","tag-patients","tag-risk","tag-scientists","tag-symptoms","tag-treatment","tag-uk","tag-university","tag-us","tag-will","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}