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The Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention, Intervention and Care

Effective dementia prevention, intervention, and care could transform the future for society and vastly improve living and dying for individuals with dementia and their families

The Lancet Commission on dementia was convened to review the best available evidence and produce recommendations on how to best manage, or even prevent, the dementia epidemic.

The Lancet partnered with leading academic and charitable institutions (University College London, Alzheimer's Society, ESRC and Alzheimer's Research UK) to establish a Commission on Dementia Care, led by Professor Gill Livingston. The Commission reviewed the current evidence to generate evidence-based recommendations and a campaign to implement priority actions for the provision of effective and equitable dementia care, to help prevent dementia and decrease symptoms and burden for people with dementia and their families so that they can live well.

The commission was led by Professor Gill Livingston and included contributions from other members of the Division of Psychiatry: Claudia Cooper, Sergi Costafreda, Jonathan Huntley, Rob Howard, Naaheed Mukadam, Vasilkiki Orgeta, Liz Sampson and Andrew Sommerlad.

Dementia is not an inevitable consequence of ageing and the Commission identified nine potentially modifiable health and lifestyle factors from different phases of life that, if eliminated, might prevent dementia. Although therapies are currently not available to modify the underlying disease process, the Commission outlined pharmacological and social interventions that are able to help manage the manifestations of dementia.

The commission report, editorials and podcast are available by open access through the Lancet.