The risk of a person
developing dementia has been shown to significantly increase if two known causative factors are
combined.
Researchers at the University of Washington and Kaiser Permanente examined
more than 20,000 patient histories. They observed that those who had both type
2 diabetes and depression were shown to have their chance of developing
dementia within five years of initial screening double, when compared to those
diabetes patients who were not depressed.
Depression was seen in 20 per cent of diabetes sufferers and senior author
of the study Rachel Whitmer said this study builds on previous scientific work
which has analysed the causes of dementia.
Doctors hope the work can lead to new methods of diagnosing dementia earlier
being developed, which could help improve the quality of life of many
sufferers.
According to Age UK, there are an estimated
820,000 people in the UK who suffer from dementia, and while the disease mainly
affects those over the age of 65 it can affect younger people as well.
© Adfero Ltd
Dementia treatment news : 8 December 2011
