North East dementia patients could be diagnosed earlier
This medical breakthrough could diagnose North East sufferers much sooner
A trip to the opticians could spot the signs of dementia in North East patients, years before they experience memory problems or symptoms of the condition.
New research found a link between the thickness of people's retinal nerves and poor cognitive ability. The medical breakthrough has the potential to give doctors time to develop treatments earlier, but not everyone is convinced it’s a good idea.
Karen Hendrix from Gateshead knows the devastating impact dementia can have on a family. Her husband Mike was diagnosed with early onset dementia 3 years ago and now has to live in a full time care facility. She think’s opticians handing out diagnosis’s runs the risk of panicking people unnecessarily:
“Personally, I wouldn’t want an optician to give me a diagnosis, I’d rather they refer me to a GP. It’s quite frightening getting a diagnosis of dementia or even a possible diagnosis of dementia. If your optician came back to you and said ‘we think there’s a problem’ without checking with a GP first, I’d be really worried. What you don’t want to do is worry people unnecessarily about a possible diagnosis when it might not actually be the case, it could be nothing”