Thousands of elderly people could end up wrongly "labelled" as having dementia because of global drives to develop screening for the condition, experts warn today.
Screening programmes which seek out minor memory changes could lead to two thirds of people over the age of 80 being told they have Alzheimer’s disease.
And some 23% of people over the age of 65 could end up being told they have dementia, according to a report in the British Medical Journal.
The British and US governments have made a priority of dementia awareness.
But experts gathering today at a "preventing overdiagnosis" conference in New Hampshire, USA, are set to challenge the policy.
The challenge was welcomed by one senior GP in the UK.
Writing in the journal, the experts say there is no evidence of benefits from the British government policy to set up memory clinics in all towns and cities.
Professor David Le Couteur, of the Centre for Education and Research on Ageing at the University of Sydney, Australia, writes: "We risk being conscripted into an unwanted war against dementia.”
Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, backed the comments.
She said: "This paper will be welcomed by the thousands of GPs who are concerned about screening for dementia when there is currently no sound science to back it up. There is a risk that it creates more problems than it solves by generating false positives that worry patients and their families, as well as increasing unnecessary referrals to secondary care.
"Even when cases are diagnosed correctly, GPs need more resources and far greater access to services such as memory clinics."
BMJ 11 September 2013 [abstract]
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