Pushing technology and drugs to the limit in efforts to deal with dementia | Letters
The prospect of future generations having access to effective drug treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia cannot come soon enough (UK on verge of new dawn for dementia treatments, says taskforce chair, 26 April). Indeed, Alzheimer’s Society first funded Prof John Hardy’s amyloid research back in 1989, and it is only now that we are seeing the first amyloid-targeting treatments that show evidence of slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
While we await these new drugs, we need to improve the lives of people living with dementia so they can continue to live independently and remain in their own homes for as long as possible. We need new assistive technologies that use recent advances such as artificial intelligence to learn about people living with dementia and adapt to their changing conditions to help them keep doing the things that bring them fulfilment. To succeed, they must be designed with people living with dementia and their carers to truly meet their needs.
The £4m Longitude Prize on Dementia – funded by Alzheimer’s Society and Innovate UK – is incentivising work in this area. We are bringing innovators and people affected by dementia together to create new assistive technologies. This June, we will award £1.8m in grants to 23 teams of innovators, with the five most promising solutions receiving further funding in 2024. One team will be awarded £1m in 2026. Our ambition is that adaptive technologies that make living with dementia easier could be available within three years.
Medical advances in drug treatments offer great hope for future generations; assistive technologies can offer hope to those who will not be able to benefit from them.
Kate Lee CEO, Alzheimer’s Society, Prof John T O’Brien Chair, Longitude Prize on Dementia judging panel; professor of old age psychiatry, University of Cambridge
The head of Alzheimer’s Research UK, Hilary Evans, believes that the UK is close to a new era of dementia treatment. She says: “The worst thing that could happen is for the science to be delivering, but patients not getting the drugs.” But the opposite may be true: patients are getting the drugs even though the science is not delivering.
Tacrine (not used in the UK) was withdrawn from worldwide use by its manufacturer in 2013 because of safety concerns. Cholinesterase inhibitor drugs, still widely used in the UK, have had state funding withdrawn in France because their benefits are so limited. Recent trials of new drug formulations that showed promise in the early stages of their development have been disappointing. Promissory medical research overstates the potential benefits of new drugs and understates their adverse effects, in hopes of a breakthrough.
Steve Iliffe Emeritus professor of primary care for older people, University College London
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