Major European dementia study recruits first participant
May 2016: The European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia initiative (EPAD), led by Professor Craig Ritchie of CCBS, has recruited its first study participant.
The £50 million (€64 m) European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia initiative (EPAD) aims to improve understanding of the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease and how it leads to dementia. The study involves 36 organisations including universities, commercial partners and patient organisations.
Julie Duffus from near Edinburgh in Scotland is the first person to take part in the project, which aims to recruit 6000 volunteers from across Europe. Participants will have regular health checks including blood tests and brain scans. Researchers will also track their thinking skills over time using tests of mental agility. The team hopes to develop tests to identify early signs of Alzheimer’s disease that may indicate when a person is at risk of dementia before symptoms appear. They will then invite these people to take part in clinical trials aimed at testing interventions that could delay, or even prevent, the onset of dementia.
Julie, who lives near Edinburgh, decided to take part in the research after both her parents had dementia.
Read Julie's story on the Centre for Dementia Prevention website
This is an important milestone in our quest to better understand the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s dementia. Early signs of Alzheimer’s disease are often present for up to twenty years before a person develops any symptoms. We believe that if we can identify these people sooner, early intervention may have greater success at tackling the disease.
EPAD receives support from the European Union and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) under the auspices of the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking.
Related links
Professor Craig Ritchie Principal Investigator profile