The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has bravely chosen to use his time as the current president of the G8 summit to focus the world’s attention on dementia, one of the most distressing and yet one of the most neglected public-health issues facing developed economies. In Britain – a pattern reflected elsewhere – spending on research into the treatment of dementia is about a fifth of that for cancer. The British Government’s decision to double its contribution to dementia research is a step in the right direction, therefore, and welcome as long as it is only a first step.It is estimated that coping with dementia costs the world hundreds of billions of dollars a year, so that drugs that could alleviate or arrest it would more than cover their cost. The world needs to h