Dementia diagnoses on the rise
pharmafile | July 30, 2014 | News story | Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Alzheimer's, david cameron, dementia
The number of patients in England diagnosed with dementia has increased by 62% over seven years according to provisional figures released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
More than 344,000 people were diagnosed with dementia in 2013/14, up from 213,000 in 2006/7 when the data were first collected.
The number of patients registered with GP practices in England who have been diagnosed with dementia has been rising steadily since the data was first collected.
It is thought this could be down to a number of factors, including more people being diagnosed with dementia, improved recording of diagnoses and significantly, the UK’s aging population.
Dr Eric Karran, director of research at the UK’s dementia research charity Alzheimer’s Research UK, supports this theory, saying: “The greatest risk factor is age – the older you get, the greater the likelihood you’ll have Alzheimer’s.”
The regional data would seem to suggest that England’s ageing population is a factor, showing that London with its markedly lower age profile has the smallest level of recorded diagnosis in England.
In London just 25.8% of patients registered with a GP are over 50, whilst in the north this was 36.1%. Accordingly, London had a recorded diagnosis of dementia level of 0.39% compared to 0.67% in the north of the capital.
The percentage of registered patients with a recorded diagnosis of dementia increased in all four NHS regions of England.
The provisional numbers are the first time that dementia figures have been published as a standalone report.
They are being recorded to monitor the progress of the Departments of Health’s dementia strategy and show that there is still have a long way to go to meet G8 summit’s goal of making Alzheimer’s preventable by 2025.
George Mcnamara, head of policy and public affairs at Alzheimer’s Society, says: “Whilst a rise in diagnosis does show progress, over half of people living with dementia still do not have one.”
“With an ageing population and more people developing the condition, diagnosing dementia must remain a priority. Whilst it is one of the most feared conditions for those over 55, everyone has a right to know they are living with dementia and deserves the chance to access available treatments and support.”
Research ‘achingly slow’
Despite being an increasing problem in the west there has been very little progress in treating dementia in recent years, with more than 100 experimental Alzheimer’s drugs failing tests in the last 15 years.
At present Alzheimer’s dementia, which affects about 62% of those suffering from dementia, is treated by three main drugs: Novartis’ Exleon, Eisai and Pfizer’s Aricept and galantamine (first developed in the former Soviet Union in the 1950s).
All these drugs act in mainly the same way: by blocking an enzyme in the brain and increasing the amount of neurotransmitters which affect signals in the brain.
Whilst patient’s symptoms can improve on these medicines, the effects are limited and have mostly worn off within 12 months.
Most importantly none of the drugs currently available change the course of the disease which affects around half a million people in the UK.
Pharma industry analysts believe that a truly effective drug could be worth around $10 billion in peak sales. But currently research into dementia is ‘achingly slow’ with global spending on dementia five times less than the figure for cancer R&D.
In June, the British prime minister David Cameron announced that the UK would double funding for dementia research by 2015, calling the disease ‘one of the greatest enemies of humanity’.
This follows the launch of the UK Dementias Research Platform – a £16 million public-private partnership set up to speed research into various neurodegenerative conditions.
Emily MacKenzie
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