The Brain Health research landscape...
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Dementia, and the other cognitive issues associated with ageing, represent one of the most pressing public health challenges of the 21st century. There are currently over 60 million people worldwide living with dementia, with this number predicted to double every twenty years. The rising prevalence of dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases has profound clinical, economic and societal implications. Dementia is a global problem, but it presents local challenges. Here in Scotland, there are 90,000 people living with dementia, with an estimated annual incidence of 20,000.
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Despite substantial investment by government, industry and charity, the availability of evidence-based interventions for prevention, treatment, or care is sorely limited. Indeed, the pharmacological treatments available to people living with dementia have not changed since 2000. While the lack of treatment breakthroughs is disappointing, now is not a time to accept cognitive decline as an inevitable feature of ageing. Improvements in the management of conditions like heart failure and cancer highlight that through research, we can create revolutions in prevention and management.
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Traditionally, research, practice, and policy has majored on specific diseases such as dementia and stroke. In a multimorbid, ageing population, this single condition focussed approached does not work and we need to encourage radical new ways of thinking. The clinical syndromes that cause cognitive decline are the end stage of biological processes that begin many years before any manifest symptoms. Recognising shared pathologies and potential for pluripotent interventions, a broader theme of brain health has developed. The brain health research concept originated in Scotland but is now gaining international prominence and acceptance.
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