Memory clinics and specialist services in a few hospitals record the number of people with dementia referred to their service (Alladi et al., 2011; Nair et al., 2012; Pal et al., 2013; Tripathi et al., 2015). The primary goal of maintaining a dementia registry is to provide multidisciplinary care and conduct research related to clinical characteristics of these patients. However, not all persons with dementia seeking help in these hospitals are referred to the clinics. This is due to low awareness among both patients and professionals and the large number of patients who often cannot be catered for by the memory clinics. Another challenge faced by registries is that they exist only for the period of the research project and, as a result, tend to focus on specific areas of their research interest. More recently, the Government of India, through the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), has set up a project to develop a network of dementia registries across major academic institutions in different parts of the country to collect information about the burden, pattern of subtypes, risk factors and care needs of persons with dementia in the Indian context (Bhatt, 2020).

References:

Alladi, S., Mekala, S., Chadalawada, S. K., Jala, S., Mridula, R., & Kaul, S. (2011). Subtypes of \Dementia: A Study from a Memory Clinic in India. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders, 32(1), 32–38. https://doi.org/10.1159/000329862

Bhatt (2020). DBT’s multi-centric Dementia Science Programme. Vigyan Samachar. Available from: https://vigyanprasar.gov.in/wp-content/uploads/DBT%E2%80%99s-multi-centric-Dementia-Science-Programme-10apr20.pdf

Nair, G., Van Dyk, K., Shah, U., Purohit, D. P., Pinto, C., Shah, A. B., …& Sano, M. (2012). Characterizing Cognitive Deficits and Dementia in an Aging Urban Population in India. International Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2012, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2012/673849

Pal, S., Sanyal, D., Biswas, A., Paul, N., & Das, S. K. (2013). Visual Manifestations in Alzheimer’s disease. American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias, 28(6), 575–582. https://doi.org/10.1177/1533317513494448

Tripathi, R., Kumar, K., Balachandar, R., Marimuthu, P., Varghese, M., & Bharath, S. (2015). Neuropsychological markers of mild cognitive impairment: A clinic based study from urban India. Annals of Indian Academy of Neurology, 18(2), 177–180. https://doi.org/10.4103/0972-2327.150566