All news

A national research study is investigating whether a readily available anti-sickness drug could treat dementia-related hallucinations. The Trial of Ondansetron as a Parkinson’s HAllucinations Treatment, or TOP HAT study, is recruiting volunteers across England, Scotland and Wales to evaluate whether ondansetron, an anti-sickness drug used in the NHS, could also be used for treating hallucinations […]

On 14 August 2022, the Prime Minister launched a national mission to tackle dementia in memory of the late Dame Barbara Windsor. He called for volunteers to join ‘Babs’ Army’ and sign up to Join Dementia Research. Since then we’ve welcomed hundreds of new people to the service from all over the UK. About Join […]

A pioneering international study is exploring how health promotion and self-management programmes could be used to support people with early-stage dementia and improve their health outcomes. The Self-management and HeAlth Promotion in early-stage dementia with E-learning for carers study, or SHAPE for short, is looking to recruit people with a mild to moderate dementia diagnosis […]

There are almost one million people with dementia in the UK and the most common cause is Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers from University College London (UCL) with funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research are testing a new approach to the treatment of mild Alzheimer’s disease in the DESPIAD (DEpletion of SaP in […]

Although the causes of dementia are not yet known, we do know which lifestyle choices such as diet, exercise and smoking can affect brain health and the chances of developing dementia. Until now, there has been little insight into the perceptions of brain health around the world. In June 2019 an anonymous online survey ‘The […]

Every year we ask our Join Dementia Research volunteers to tell us about their experiences of the service via a questionnaire. This helps us to understand what we are doing well and enables us to identify areas for improvement. Engagement You may have noticed some changes to the survey this year; we reduced the number […]

This year, Dementia Action Week takes place 16-22 May in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Dementia podcast With this being a key opportunity in the calendar to raise awareness about dementia, we are delighted to share a new podcast with Professor John O’Brien, the NIHR National Specialty Lead for Dementia. In this podcast, Professor O’Brien […]

You may have noticed that when you log into your account things look a little different.  We have listened to your feedback and as part of a continuous process of development, we have made some changes to the volunteer page. Some key changes and things to look out for are summarised below. Key updates When […]

After a period of many online studies, we are pleased to share that researchers are increasingly inviting participants to take part in face to face studies.  Here are some examples of studies currently looking for volunteers to take part in different parts of the UK: Sleep, gut health and cognition study Insomnia in later life […]

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia in the UK and the symptoms develop gradually over many years. Background The symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease can progress slowly and many, such as getting more forgetful, can be attributed to ‘just getting older.’ This can make diagnosis more difficult and currently there is no single […]