"Still Alice" to debut at VU Medical Center

The VU Medical Center (VUmc) in Amsterdam is organizing a premiere of the Academy Award Winning movie "Still Alice" for the contributors of VUmc's Alzheimer center and other interested parties. In the film Dr. Alice Howland, portrayed by Julianne Moore, gets diagnosed with Alzheimer's at a young age. She struggles with the disease and it exerts a great influence on her work, marriage and family in the movie. VUmc's Alzheimer Center is known for its excellence in researching and treating dementia in young people. The Medical Center made an agreement with September Film, the film's distributor, since VUmc is the forefront of early age dementia research in the Netherlands. A team of 40 doctors and researchers are closely involved in the research for better diagnosis and treatment of early onset dementia. "Approximately 20,000 people are estimated to have dementia before the age of 65. The diagnosis is often missed because of the unfamiliarity of the disease. A young dementia patient requires different kind of treatment than older patients because the disease often occurs more aggressively and does not necessarily start with the known memory problems as seen with the elderly," Professor Philip Scheltens, director of the VUmc Alzheimer Center, explains in a comment.