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Home › Research › Journals › The Lancet

Research published in The Lancet

Every study in the alzhub library that its record lists as published in The Lancet, summarised in plain English and scored out of 100.

These counts and lists are worked out from the library itself each time the page loads. A score rates how much weight a study can bear — its design, journal, evidence and recency — not whether its result is good news.

How the records spell this journal (2 spellings)

The 20 highest-scoring

  1. Study of mirtazapine for agitated behaviours in dementia (SYMBAD): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial Lancet (London, England) · 2021-10-23 · · Peer-reviewed
  2. A 2 year multidomain intervention of diet, exercise, cognitive training, and vascular risk monitoring versus control to prevent cognitive decline in at-risk elderly people (FINGER): a randomised controlled trial Lancet (London, England) · 2015-03-12 · · Peer-reviewed

    In this two-year randomised trial in at-risk older people, a combined programme of diet, exercise, cognitive training and vascular risk monitoring produced a small, statistically significant advantage over control in the yearly change of a cognitive test-battery score (difference 0·022 per year; 95% CI 0·002–0·042). The authors say this "suggest[s]" such a programme "could improve or maintain cognitive functioning"; the record reports no dementia outcomes. Adverse events were more common with the intervention (7% vs 1%), mostly musculoskeletal pain.

  3. Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss in the USA (ACHIEVE): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial Lancet (London, England) · 2023-07-18 · · Peer-reviewed

    In this US randomised trial of older adults with hearing loss, a hearing intervention did not change 3-year cognitive decline compared with a health education control: both groups declined by about 0·2 SD (difference 0·002, p=0·96), and no significant study-related adverse events were reported in either group. A prespecified sensitivity analysis found the effect differed between the trial's two cohorts (ARIC and de novo; p interaction =0·010), which the authors say suggests a hearing intervention "might" reduce cognitive change in older adults at increased risk of decline. That is a secondary signal, not a shown benefit.

  4. Efficacy and safety of oral semaglutide 14 mg (flexible dose) in early-stage symptomatic Alzheimer's disease (EVOKE and EVOKE+): two phase 3, randomised, placebo-controlled trials The Lancet · 2026-01-01 · · Peer-reviewed

    In two Phase 3 trials of 3,808 participants, oral semaglutide showed no significant difference from placebo in clinical decline on the main measure, and Novo Nordisk ended its Alzheimer's program for the drug after this result. Some biomarker reductions did not translate into any detectable slowing of cognitive or functional decline.

  5. Prevention of dementia in randomised double-blind placebo-controlled Systolic Hypertension in Europe (Syst-Eur) trial Lancet (London, England) · 1998-10-01 · · Peer-reviewed

    In older people with isolated systolic hypertension, antihypertensive drug treatment was associated with about half the incidence of dementia compared with placebo. This suggests that controlling high blood pressure may help prevent dementia, but the trial was not designed primarily to test dementia prevention and the result was of borderline significance.

  6. Epidemiology of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia in China, 1990-2010: a systematic review and analysis Lancet (London, England) · 2013-06-01 · · Peer-reviewed

    This review concluded that earlier estimates may have underestimated the burden of dementia in China. It is about measuring how common dementia is, not about treating, curing or preventing it.

  7. Global prevalence of dementia: a Delphi consensus study Lancet (London, England) · 2005-12-01 · · Peer-reviewed

    This consensus study estimates how many people have dementia worldwide and projects that the number will grow substantially by 2040, especially in developing countries. It provides no information about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.

  8. Effectiveness of a 6-year multidomain vascular care intervention to prevent dementia (preDIVA): a cluster-randomised controlled trial Lancet (London, England) · 2016-07-26 · · Peer-reviewed

    This randomised controlled trial found that a nurse-led, multidomain vascular care intervention did not reduce the incidence of all-cause dementia in an unselected population of older people. The intervention did not work for preventing dementia in this trial.

  9. Improving comfort around dying in elderly people: a cluster randomised controlled trial Lancet (London, England) · 2017-05-16 · · Peer-reviewed
  10. Efficacy and safety of tau-aggregation inhibitor therapy in patients with mild or moderate Alzheimer's disease: a randomised, controlled, double-blind, parallel-arm, phase 3 trial Lancet (London, England) · 2016-11-16 · · Peer-reviewed
  11. Long-term effectiveness of dopamine agonists and monoamine oxidase B inhibitors compared with levodopa as initial treatment for Parkinson's disease (PD MED): a large, open-label, pragmatic randomised trial Lancet (London, England) · 2014-06-11 · · Peer-reviewed
  12. Addition of a non-immersive virtual reality component to treadmill training to reduce fall risk in older adults (V-TIME): a randomised controlled trial Lancet (London, England) · 2016-08-11 · · Peer-reviewed

    In older adults at high risk of falls, treadmill training combined with a non-immersive virtual reality component reduced fall rates more than treadmill training alone. This is about preventing falls, not about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.

  13. Robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy versus open radical retropubic prostatectomy: early outcomes from a randomised controlled phase 3 study Lancet (London, England) · 2016-07-26 · · Peer-reviewed
  14. Efficacy of rivastigmine in dementia with Lewy bodies: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled international study Lancet (London, England) · 2000-12-01 · · Peer-reviewed

    In this 20-week Lancet trial, 120 people with dementia with Lewy bodies in the UK, Spain and Italy took rivastigmine (up to 12 mg a day) or a placebo; those on rivastigmine were less apathetic and anxious, had fewer delusions and hallucinations, and were faster and better on attention-heavy tests, and 63% of them (37 people) versus 30% on placebo (18) improved by at least 30% from baseline. The differences tended to disappear once the drug was stopped, and nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite were more common on rivastigmine, though the authors judged it safe and well tolerated when the dose was adjusted individually. The trial measured symptom relief during treatment only, so it does not show that rivastigmine slows, cures or prevents this form of dementia.

  15. A 2 year multidomain intervention of diet, exercise, cognitive training, and vascular risk monitoring versus control to prevent cognitive decline in at-risk elderly people (FINGER): a randomised controlled trial The Lancet · 2015-03-12 · · Peer-reviewed

    The FINGER trial showed that a two-year multidomain program of diet, exercise, cognitive training, and vascular risk monitoring helped maintain or improve thinking skills in older adults at elevated dementia risk compared with general health advice. Adverse events, mostly musculoskeletal, were more common in the intervention group (7% vs 1%).

  16. 6-month consequences of COVID-19 in patients discharged from hospital: a cohort study Lancet (London, England) · 2021-01-08 · · Peer-reviewed

    This study followed patients discharged after COVID-19 and found some had ongoing problems with lung diffusion, anxiety or depression, fatigue, and kidney function. It does not address Alzheimer's disease treatment, cure or prevention.

  17. Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss in the USA (ACHIEVE): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial The Lancet · 2023-09-02 · · Peer-reviewed

    Across the whole group of 977 older adults with hearing loss, hearing treatment did not significantly slow cognitive decline over three years, but a planned higher-risk subgroup showed roughly 48% less decline with hearing treatment. Both the overall null result and the subgroup benefit are findings from the same randomized trial.

  18. Efficacy of galantamine in probable vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease combined with cerebrovascular disease: a randomised trial Lancet (London, England) · 2002-04-01 · · Peer-reviewed

    In this 6-month double-blind trial, 592 people with probable vascular dementia or Alzheimer's disease plus cerebrovascular disease were randomly given galantamine 24 mg a day (396) or placebo (196). On the ADAS-cog thinking test, the galantamine group improved by 1.7 points while the placebo group worsened by 1.0, a 2.7-point difference. The authors report benefits across "all key areas of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities", but the copy of the abstract we hold is cut off before those other results, so only the thinking-test result can be checked here, and it describes symptoms over 6 months, not a cure or prevention.

  19. Multidomain lifestyle intervention for the prevention of cognitive decline in at-risk older adults in Latin America (LatAm-FINGERS): a single-blind, multicentre, randomised controlled trial The Lancet · 2026-07-13 · · Peer-reviewed

    This trial in Latin America tested a multidomain lifestyle intervention in older adults at risk of cognitive decline and reported on how well the program was delivered and how many participants stayed in it. It supports the feasibility of such programs in populations historically under-represented in dementia research, but the text does not report whether the intervention reduced cognitive decline.

  20. Dementia incidence and mortality in middle-income countries, and associations with indicators of cognitive reserve: a 10/66 Dementia Research Group population-based cohort study Lancet (London, England) · 2012-05-23 · · Peer-reviewed

    Following 8,137 older adults in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Peru, Mexico and China for 3–5 years, this cohort found new dementia cases at 18·2–30·4 per 1000 person-years using 10/66 criteria, 1·4–2·7 times the DSM-IV rate. People who already had dementia at the start had a 1·56–5·69 times higher risk of death. The authors say their findings support the cognitive reserve idea: in these countries, as in high-income ones, education and literacy went with a lower chance of developing dementia. This was an observational study and tested no treatment or prevention.

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