Table 1 Contrasting views of Neuroscientists and GPs regarding early detection of dementia symptoms

Therapies that tried to modify the disease have failed. This means that when signs of dementia become visible, it is too late to treat the actual cause and [the treatment] will not be effective. We need to detect the disease as early as possible before relevant symptoms occur. We need to [be able to] say if a patient might develop dementia in 10 to 15 years.

I believe it doesn’t make any sense to tell a patient very early that he might have dementia because it will not have any consequences. Even if you tell me that there are medications that will delay the progress of dementia for 2 years the patient will not have two good years. With the diagnosis, I have destroyed his life. In my belief, it doesn’t make any sense to detect it (dementia) early.