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Of course, there is still no cure for dementia. But researchers may have found a therapy to alleviate some of the symptoms of the disease.
About 1 million people in France suffer from Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia. Worldwide, they would be nearly 55.2 million, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). A scourge on which researchers from University College London (UCL) have looked, trying to fight against two important symptoms linked to this disease.
1,945,323 patients were included in the analysis
In this study published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, the researchers used data from 1,945,323 patients with depression/anxiety who received talk therapy treatment in England. 1549 of them were diagnosed with dementia.
The sex, age, professional activity and ethnic origin of the volunteers were also taken into account.
The researchers then found that after treatment 63% of participants with dementia had fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety, while about 40% of patients saw these symptoms disappear completely.
Another interesting finding: people over 65 had better results than young volunteers. An unsurprising fact for scientists.
“Research has shown that older people tend to have better IAPT treatment outcomes on average than younger people.“, tells Healthline Dr. Amber John, co-lead author of the research, before adding “It is therefore plausible that this may also be the case for people with dementia, [bien] that this has not yet been systematically tested.”
Finally, in the last group, 70% of patients who suffered from depression or anxiety – but not dementia – saw their symptoms improve and 47% of them emerged “cured” from the therapy.
Very promising initial results, which shed light on the intrinsic link between dementia and its symptoms (depression, anxiety, etc.).