General Information About Research Trials

Trials vary in type. Some test drugs that may prevent or treat dementia. These are called clinical drug trials. Others test lifestyle changes such as exercise programs or the treatment of risk factors such as high blood pressure.

These are called lifestyle intervention trials. Others follow volunteers for many years to learn more about the causes of dementia. These are sometimes called observational studies.

They may ask you to fill in an “on-line” questionnaire and memory test on your home computer. Or they may ask you to have a face-to-face meeting with researchers.

These take up more time, and may ask you to have brain scans, to give a blood sample, and to have detailed memory and thinking testing. Some even ask you to have a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to analyse the fluid that surrounds the brain.