The limits of dementia treatment in primary care

Half of primary care physicians say their field is not prepared to handle the increasing number of people with dementia they expect to be treating in the next five years, according to survey results from the Alzheimer’s Association. As the population with dementia grows, general practitioners are going to need to handle more of the responsibility of diagnosing and caring for people. But according to the survey, about 40% of primary care physicians say they are “never” or only “sometimes comfortable” diagnosing dementia, and 27% say they are uncomfortable answering questions from patients about dementia. One problem: Most of the physicians said they received only “very little” training on dementia in their residencies.