On 25 September 2025, at the fourth special high-level meeting of the General Assembly on non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health, heads of states and governments discussed a Political Declaration at the UN General Assembly on the prevention and control of NCDs and the promotion of mental health and wellbeing towards 2030 and beyond. For the first time, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia were explicitly mentioned within the declaration:
• Emphasize that mental health conditions including anxiety, depression, and psychosis affect close to 1 billion people worldwide and can commonly co-occur and interact with other neurological conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, stroke sequelae, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and other noncommunicable Diseases (...)
• Recognize that noncommunicable diseases and mental health and well-being are closely intertwined with brain health and neurological conditions, that mental health conditions and neurological conditions contribute to the global incidence and impact of noncommunicable diseases (...)
• Scale up, particularly at primary health care level and within general health care services, the accessibility, availability and provision of psychosocial and psychological support, and pharmacological treatment for depression, anxiety and psychosis, as well as for other related conditions, including (...) dementia (...), while addressing related stigma including through inclusive and accessible quality public education and the involvement of people with lived experience;
Despite the majority of countries speaking in favour of the Political Declaration, it was not passed by consensus, and as such, will go to a full vote of the General Assembly. The full Political Declaration is available at:
https://www.who.int/teams/noncommunicable-diseases/on-the-road-to-2025