Alzheimer's Research Trust Report shows dementia to be the greatest medical challenge of our time

10.32.50am GMT Fri 5th Feb 2010

The Alzheimer's Research Trust commissioned the Health Economics Research Centre at the University of Oxford to produce a report on the economic cost of dementia to the UK, and the country's investment in research to find treatments, preventions and cures.

Local Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow spoke at the Royal Society of Chemistry this week regarding research into dementia and also contributed a foreword to the Alzheimer's Research Trust Report.

The findings of the report are astonishing and show dementia to be the greatest medical challenge of our time.

Over 820,000 people in the UK live with Alzheimer's and other dementias.

Dementia costs the UK economy £23 billion per year: more than cancer and heart disease combined.

Dementia research is severely underfunded, receiving 12 times less support than cancer research.

Alzheimer's Research Trust

http://www.dementia2010.org/

Full Report (pdf):

http://www.dementia2010.org/reports/Dementia2010Full.pdf