Preface

The world's older population currently comprises almost 900 million men and women. Most of them are living in what are presently slightly poor countries. Mortality charges among older individuals are falling, and life expectancy from age 60 continues to increase in all world areas, without an upper limit in sight. As individuals live longer, chronic diseases end up more established, a trend exacerbated by changes in the direction of life and behav‐ iors that predispose the development of the diseases.

About 47 million individuals at the moment are residing with dementia worldwide, with numbers projected to just about double each two decades, growing to 74.7 million by 2030 and 131.5 million by 2050. While dementia shortens the lives of those affected, the quality of life of both patients and their family and caregivers is heavily affected.

A growing evidence suggests that, among older humans, dementia has a bigger impact on disability than other physical and/or intellectual disorders, needing for care and attendant fees. In step with trending expenditure projections, the worldwide price of dementia will have reached US\$1 trillion in 2018. Therefore, the scientific and social groups need a specific knowledge that dementia is a world difficulty and a better working out of the extent of the current therapy gap in terms of analysis, therapies, services, and help are needed.

While there has been a productive pipeline of promising new agents with plausible ambi‐ tions linked to Alzheimer's disease pathology, there have been a dispiritingly excessive per‐ centage of failures in phase II human trials and phase III definitive randomized controlled clinical trials. This raises professional questions involving the validity of our current disease models and the experimental drug design method. Despite the fact that the course of de‐ mentia is not able to be altered, symptomatic cures and support are invaluable. Earlier anal‐ ysis makes it possible for those affected to take part in evolved care planning while they nonetheless have the ability to take action. Education, coaching, and support for carers are important in lowering caregiver's pressure and psychological morbidity and in delaying or warding off transition into care houses.

Support groups for people with dementia, current pharmacological interventions, and cog‐ nitive stimulation to strengthen cognitive performance and behavioral interventions for fighting depression are all potent interventions in early-stage dementia. The common efforts and the final aim of the whole society will have to be the progress of a "dementia-construc‐ tive" procedure, enabling an actual social inclusion and no longer a simple support or even toleration of individuals with dementia. This book is a proposal of the major updates on dementia physiopathological mechanisms and possible treatment options.

#### **Dr. Davide Vito Moretti**

Rehabilitation in Alzheimer's Disease Operative Unit, National Institute for Research and Cure in Dementia and Mental Health Fatebenefratelli, St. John of God Hospital, Italy
