Sconfiggere l’Alzheimer e le altre demenze: una priorità per la scienza e per la società europea (Lancet 2016)

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia, and because the primary risk factor for AD is old age, the prevalence of the disease is increasing dramatically with ageing populations worldwide. The past two decades have seen remarkable improvements in the quality of care for patients with AD, with a research-driven shift to more personalised and integrated team-oriented care. Epidemiological and genetic studies have identified many factors that increase the risk of AD. Prevention studies have highlighted the possibility of targeting risk and protective factors to delay onset, with the promise of reducing the overall prevalence of dementia.
The Commission considered a range of challenges that need to be addressed to reduce the burden of dementia, and these challenges are discussed in detail in the main sections of our report: health economics (section 1), epidemiology (section 2), prevention (section 3), genetics (section 4), biology (section 5), diagnosis (section 6), treatment (sections 7, 8), care (section 9), and ethics (section 10).

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