AD Research: A National Priority

Given our aging population, AD is a steadily increasing national health problem. This makes the disease an urgent research priority. Interventions that could delay or prevent the onset of AD would have an enormous positive public health impact because they would greatly reduce the number of people with the disease. This, in turn, would reduce the personal and financial costs of caring for people with AD.

Our knowledge about the origins and development of AD and about potential preventive and treatment strategies has progressed rapidly in recent years. The ultimate goal of reducing the individual and societal burden of this devastating disease is within our reach if we can:

• Improve diagnostic tools, such as neuro-psychological tests, imaging tests, and biological markers, so that AD can be diagnosed accurately and early, and treatments can be monitored more effectively;
• Develop better medicines and behavioral techniques to treat AD;
• Create improved strategies for caregiving and better coping mechanisms for caregivers; and
• Devise approaches that could delay the onset of AD or even prevent the disease.

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