We are delighted to announce that the first study participant for the EPAD Scotland study was seen today at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. The EPAD Scotland study is the first follow-on study to the large pan-European EPAD Longitudinal Cohort Study (LCS) which finished study visits in 2020.

The European Prevention of Alzheimer’s Dementia (EPAD) LCS was a pan-European study with an aim to identify the very earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease years before any clinical symptoms manifest. As part of the EPAD LCS, over 2,000 participants were screened and a wide range of cognitive, clinical, neuroimaging and biomarker data collected.

Since the end of the overall Innovative Medicine’s Initiative funding of EPAD LCS, there are follow-on studies to the EPAD LCS being set up locally within each host country in order to continue collecting longitudinal data on early risk factor for dementia. EPAD LCS continues to be one of the largest cohorts of participants in the pre-dementia stages and will be further enhanced with local follow-on studies inviting the same participants back to continue building up longitudinal data over many years. The EPAD Scotland study is the first national initiative to have started study recruitment.

The primary investigator for the EPAD Scotland study is Prof Craig Ritchie and the study is funded by the Alzheimer’s Disease Discovery Fund.