This is the sixteenth edition of a series of conferences that has a consolidated trajectory, an activity that is developed in collaboration with Springer Nature, which is responsible for proposing a series of current and interesting topics to the Ramon Areces Foundation for them to select the most suitable to discuss in this forum each year.

This year, there was unanimity when choosing the topic of debate, betting on dementia. It is an issue that concerns us all. In addition, unlike other illnesses, patients with dementia generally do not themselves choose to go to the consultation to ask for help for this disorder; usually this visit is propitiated by their relatives. It is, without a doubt, a disease that others usually detect.

We face a syndrome, not a disease; that is, we fight against a set of clinical manifestations common to various diseases. Among dementias, Alzheimer’s disease currently plays a greater role since it accounts for approximately 60% of all dementias; however, it is not the only disorder that concerns us, and concerns us within the so-called dementias.

This is an ideal time to address dementias in this forum since we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We have new resources and diagnostic possibilities, as well as promising treatments – the result of arduous and intense basic and clinical research.