On 23 February, a group of researchers including the Executive Director of Alzheimer Europe Jean Georges, from the public-private MOPEAD project published a paper based on a survey about general practitioners’ attitudes towards early and pre-dementia diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring.
The paper is based on responses from 343 general practitioners' who provided feedback on their general attitudes towards early diagnosis, diagnostic procedures, resources, and on present and future treatment options across five European countries.
Looking at the results, the team noticed that the majority of general practitioners thought that an early diagnosis was of value. On the other hand, they also identified some barriers to an earlier diagnosis. These were mostly of logistic nature, such as a lack of time. Less than a third of the 343 respondents pointed out that they had sufficient time to manage a patient with very early dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI).
Looking at country variances, they found that there were strong differences with regard to reimbursement perceptions, but also regarding the knowledge about early diagnosis. About a third of the respondents did not feel confident in the diagnostic procedures for very early dementia or MCI.
The survey also focussed on their opinion on pharmacological treatment options that are currently available and the paper highlighted that the majority was of the opinion that they have no or low benefit for patients. At the same time, results pointed out that the majority thought that non-pharmacological options do come with a benefit although results indicated that they are not sufficiently available.