ICMR Launches MUDRA Toolbox For Dementia Patients In 5 Languages

It is a collective effort by seven leading centres in India NIMHANS (Bengaluru), SCTIMST (Thiruvananthapuram), AIIMS (New Delhi), NIIMS (Hyderabad), Apollo Hospital (Kolkata), Manipal Hospital (Bengaluru) and Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College. The toolbox provides several features to assess various domains of cognitive tests like cognition, memory, visuospatial functions, and language. The Principal of Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, Prof Jeyaraj D Pandian, said that MUDRA toolbox is a comprehensive tool designed specifically to diagnose dementia in the Indian population. Dr. Pradhan further expressed appreciation for the hard work of the investigators over the last six years to develop and validate the tool in the Indian population, which finally yielded results. Dr. R S Dhaliwal, head of NCD, said that it is a unique tool consisting of various tests and questionnaires. It is sensitive to the factors that affect performance on cognitive tests like education, language and culture.

"ICMR commissioned a multi-disciplinary project with a team of researchers from various fields including neurologists, psychologists and speech-language pathologists to develop a culturally, educationally and linguistically relevant neurocognitive toolbox," said Dhaliwal.

Due to low awareness and language and cultural barriers, only one in 10 people with dementia are diagnosed in India. According to the Dementia India Report 2010 by the Alzheimer's and Related disorders society of India (ARDSI), approximately 5.29 million people live with dementia in India. This number is expected to increase to 7.61 million by 2030. This initiative will undoubtedly increase the rate of diagnosis, which will eventually increase the rate of recovery.