Dementia is often not recognized immediately. A new method could change that.Photo: dpa / Sven Hoppe
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Dementia develops gradually. At the beginning, the short-term memory of those affected is often impaired. As the disease progresses, those affected also lose more and more memories from their long-term memory – and with it all the skills they have acquired over the course of their lives.
This process cannot be stopped. But it can be slowed down. In order to treat the disease as well as possible, early detection is important. But this has been a problem up to now. Scientists from Great Britain have now developed a model that can significantly advance the early detection of dementia.
80 percent probability: method detects dementia earlier
The researchers of the Queen Mary University of London have developed a method that can detect dementia up to nine years before diagnosis. They presented their results in the journal “Nature Mental Health”.
The scientists worked with magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans to detect changes in relevant areas of the brain. For the study, they examined the scans of 1,000 people with and without dementia.
With the help of the scans, they were able to assign each patient an individual risk value for developing dementia later in life. They compared the risk value with the people’s actual medical data.
The result: The scientists’ model was able to determine the probability of later dementia with a probability of 80 percent.
Researchers want to advance treatment of dementia
The British research team hopes that their model will enable them to determine much more precisely who will develop dementia in the future.
Because: These predictions “will be crucial for the development of treatments.” The methods can “prevent the irreversible loss of brain cells.” This loss of brain cells causes the symptoms of dementia, explains study leader Charles Marshall.
Samuel Ereira, lead author of the study, sees great potential in the method to better understand the interactions between environment, neurobiology and disease. He says:
“Using these analysis techniques on large data sets, we can identify those at high risk of dementia and also find out what environmental risk factors put these people in a high-risk zone.”
Their research also found that social isolation could increase the likelihood of dementia.
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According to the Federal Ministry of Health These may include speech disorders, mood swings, forgetfulness, loss of interest or misjudgement of dangers.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) According to a 2023 estimate, more than 55 million people worldwide will be affected by dementia. There are almost ten million new cases each year. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer’s disease.