Thousands may be living with dementia without knowing, study suggests

Almost twice as many people as first thought could be living with dementia, a new study has revealed.

According to The Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, a number of symptoms of dementia remain hidden for a long time, meaning thousands could be living with the disease without knowing.

It is believed that around 850,000 people in Britain are living with some form of dementia, but this could exceed one million if the results of the new study are proven beyond doubt.

To make their discovery, the scientists looked at the brains of some 2,500 people to identify the ‘tell-tale’ signs of dementia, such as protein plaques and tangles. These signs will present themselves even in a patient who displays no outward symptoms of dementia.

They found that almost twice as many people were living with the disease than first thought.

Commenting on the flaws of current dementia diagnosis, lead researcher Dr Jack Clifford said existing methods are based on very few clinical assessments.

“It’s just based on the question ‘do you have dementia?’”, he said.

“Classically defined Alzheimer’s under-counts people who have the pathology but do not have symptoms.

“A lot more people have the disease but do not have symptoms, just like a lot more people have hypertension than have had a stroke, or a lot more people have diabetes than people who have gone blind.”

He added that being able to diagnose a person early allows effective treatment to be given before irreparable memory loss takes hold.