ABSTRACT
Epidemiological research on dementia is currently in a highly frustrating phase. Hardly a month goes by without reports of new, challenging findings in neuro-pathology, biochemistry, or molecular biology, which seem to offer the promise of scientific advance in this field. Psychiatric first-admission rates are sometimes used to estimate the so-called ‘treated incidence’, but in respect of dementia this index tells more about the utilization of treatment agencies than it does about the frequency of occurrence in the elderly population. Studies of incidence may help to throw light on the nature of the relationship between pre-senile and senile dementia. Analytical epidemiology is a logical extension and development of the descriptive population survey. The search for causes of both these broad disease-categories will call for prospectively planned longitudinal and case-control studies, and for an increasing emphasis on international collaborative projects.
