Millions will be condemned to a demeaning and frightening end to their lives if treatments are not discovered

Research into Alzheimer's disease in Australia is under funded relative to the current and projected costs and the scope for huge savings from investment in research for cause, prevention and care.

Access Economics in their 2003 report "The Dementia Epidemic: Economic Impact and Positive Solutions for Australia" estimates that $1 is spent on research for each $342 of the total costs of dementia (0.29%). Though this has changed somewhat with recent Government initiatives aimed at issues related to an ageing population, there remains a need for a significant resources focused on medical research into Alzheimer's disease.

In addition Access Economics recommends that:

Dementia should be a national health priority and the funding of dementia research should form an essential part of the government's response to the dementia epidemic, as well as forming part of a more general reprioritisation of health research resources on the basis of projected prevalence, costs and disease burden.

In view of Australia's international comparative advantages in health research investment, as well as the potentially enormous cost-effective returns (potentially saving up to $4 trillion in Australia in long term health costs), urgent action should be taken to substantially boost the level of research funding for dementia.

The report highlighted that research should be directed towards:

Understanding of the biomedical causes of dementia, including epidemiological (population based) medical risk factors and public health research;
Identifying treatments that prevent or postpone the onset of dementia, or that slow or reverse disease progression;
Effective models of care (best clinical practice) for people with dementia, including ways to enhance primary care, dementia services and effectiveness of training interventions;
Identifying means of preventing the condition as the most efficacious means of alleviating the looming crisis that will be caused by the massive increases in incidence of Alzheimer's disease is imperative;
Identifying means of early intervention as the effectiveness of any treatments will be limited by the current inability to diagnose Alzheimer's disease until significant neurological damage has already been sustained.