Research Agenda for Alzheimer and Non-Alzheimer Dementias
Brandy R. Matthews, MD
In response to a mandate for a national plan, a consensus group of experts ranks training of clinicians and researchers as a top priority.
The National Alzheimer's Project Act, signed into U.S. law in 2011, requires an annually updated “National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease,” organized by goals and corresponding strategies. In response to the goal of identifying research priorities, and in recognition that the plan refers not only to Alzheimer disease but also to related dementias, a group of international experts was convened in 2013 by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and National Institute on Aging. Committees of 8 to 18 members for each of five topic areas met via teleconference, 6 months in advance of a public meeting at which the experts presented a prioritized list of research recommendations and an approximate timeline to completion.
Disease-focused topic areas included Lewy body disease, frontotemporal dementias, and vascular dementia. Broader topic areas included multiple-etiology dementia and health disparities. Each topic group identified focus areas and related recommendations but acknowledged several shared themes. The top-priority general recommendation, highlighted for immediate action, is improved training of healthcare providers, ranging from primary care to neurology and psychiatry, regarding diagnosis and treatment of neurodegenerative dementias as well as indications for subspecialty referral. Another top-priority recommendation, also applicable across the dementia subtypes, but likely requiring a delayed initiation, is the execution of biomarker-enriched cohort studies of incident dementia in diverse populations. Other shared themes related to determining mechanisms of neurodegeneration, improving diagnostic tools, biobanking, and clinical trials.
Citation(s):
Montine TJ et al. Recommendations of the Alzheimer's Disease–Related Dementias Conference. Neurology 2014 Jul 30; [e-pub ahead of print].
