A new study has found that it may be possible to spot signs of dementia as early as nine years before patients receive an official diagnosis. The findings, published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, mean that future at-risk people could be screened to help identify those who could benefit from early interventions, or those suitable for clinical trials for new treatments.
"When we looked back at patients' histories, it became clear that they were showing some cognitive impairment several years before their symptoms became obvious enough to prompt a diagnosis," study author Nol Swaddiwudhipong said, as per the study.
"The impairments were often subtle, but across a number of aspects of cognition. This is a step towards us being able to screen people who are at greatest risk - for example, people over 50 or those who have high blood pressure or do not do enough exercise - and intervene at an earlier stage to help them reduce their risk," Mr Swaddiwudhipong added.
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In the study, researchers analysed data from the UK Biobank database and pinpointed problem-solving and number recall as two of the early signs patients could develop dementia.
However, the senior author of the study, Dr Tim Rittman, said, "People should not be unduly worried if, for example, they are not good at recalling numbers." "Even some healthy individuals will naturally score better or worse than their peers. But we would encourage anyone who has any concerns or notices that their memory or recall is getting worse to speak to their GP," he added.
As per The Independent, the study found that people from the UK Biobank data who went on to develop Alzheimer's scored more poorly compared with healthy individuals when it came to problem-solving tasks, reaction times, remembering lists of numbers, prospective memory and pair matching. This was also the case for people who developed a rarer form of dementia known as frontotemporal dementia, the researchers discovered.
David Thomas, head of policy at Alzheimer's Research UK, said, "It is increasingly clear that the best chance to affect the course of the diseases which cause dementia lies in intervening at their earliest stages."
"Health services don't routinely offer the tests needed to detect changes in brain function that happen before symptoms are noticeable, like those alluded to in this study," he added.
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According to The Guardian, currently, there are very few effective treatments for dementia. Experts believe that this is partly because the condition is often diagnosed only once symptoms appear, whereas the underlying issues may have begun years earlier. This could also be because until now, it has been unclear whether it could be possible to detect changes in brain function before the onset of symptoms.
