Funding provision ‘is critical for dementia research’

Providing funding for dementia research must be considered essential in order to deal with the growing health risk posed by the condition.

This is the view of Dr Simon Ridley, head of research at the Alzheimer's Research Trust, who said that dementia is considered by many to be "the greatest medical challenge of our age".

He pointed to the fact that life expectancy is increasing in both developed and developing nations, but that this is not necessarily being accompanied by improvements in health among older people.

This fact was underlined by a recent study in the medical journal Brain, showing that more people than ever now suffer from dementia, but that the pathogenesis of the illness is still not properly understood.

Dr Ridley said that dementia research receives far less funding than conditions such as cancer, adding that although the government has pledged to look into this issue, cutbacks may mean this does not happen.

He added: "There may be even more pressure on charities such as ourselves to try and fund as much research as we can."