New research conducted by scientists at the University of Cambridge has suggested that signs of dementia may be detected up to nine years prior to a person being diagnosed with the condition.
According to the university’s press release, the team behind the new research published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association arrived at this conclusion after examining data from the UK Biobank.
During the course of their work, the team discovered that people who ended up developing Alzheimer’s disease displayed worse results in tests that involved problem-solving tasks, reaction times, remembering lists of numbers, prospective memory and pair matching.
“When we looked back at patients’ histories, it became clear that they were showing some cognitive impairment several years before their symptoms became obvious enough to prompt a diagnosis. The impairments were often subtle, but across a number of aspects of cognition,” said Nol Swaddiwudhipong, junior doctor at the University of Cambridge and first author of the study.
He added that their work is a “step towards us being able to screen people who are at greatest risk” and to “intervene at an earlier stage” in order to help these people “reduce their risk.”
However, Dr. Tim Rittman from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Cambridge, also a senior author of the study, pointed out that people should not “unduly worry” if they aren’t particularly good at recalling numbers, for example.
“Even some healthy individuals will naturally score better or worse than their peers,” he explained. “But we would encourage anyone who has any concerns or notices that their memory or recall is getting worse to speak to their GP.”