- The number of deaths related to dementia and other mental
disorders has soared in 20 years, with serious implications for health
services, patients and their families, a researcher said yesterday.
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- Deaths are occurring in younger age groups, said Colin
Pritchard, of Southampton University medical school's mental health group,
in the journal Public Health.
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- For example, deaths from dementia in men aged 55 to 64
increased by 29 per cent in England and Wales between 1979 and 1997.
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- Dementia deaths overall in England and Wales in the 45
to 74 age group rose from 1,116 in men in 1979 to 3,290 in 1997 and from
2,204 to 6,100 in women.
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- Prof Pritchard analysed deaths in several developed countries
in two categories: mental disorder deaths, which includes illnesses such
as dementia and Alzheimer's; and neurological disease deaths, including
conditions such as motor neurone disease.
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- In the second category, the increases over the period
were more marked in people aged 65 to 74. For men and women respectively,
the increases in England and Wales were 14 per cent and 18 per cent.
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- Similar rises in both categories can be seen in across
Europe, North America, Australia and Japan. They cannot simply be accounted
for by people living longer.
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- Prof Pritchard said yesterday: "The first reason
for these changes has to be environmental. There is no other logical reason
for the increases in these diseases in people still in their sixties.
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- "One study in California, for example, has found
a correlation between the use of pesticides and an increase in Parkinson's
disease.
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- "On the human side, I am very concerned. There is
nothing more harrowing for a person or their family when their humanity
is eroded, which happens with these mental diseases that can leave the
person as a husk of who they have been.
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- "This causes distress and anguish for the individual
and for their family. We are going to need increasing numbers of care beds
and there will be great pressure on the community services."
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.
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