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Texas voters on Tuesday are on track to approve Proposition 14, the constitutional amendment that both establishes a Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT) and authorizes the spending of $3 billion to set up the fund.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick led the effort this past legislative session to create DPRIT, modeling the center on the state’s cancer research fund. Senate Bill 5, by Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston, was passed earlier this year and effectively created the institute.
Now that the constitutional amendment has passed, the institute is to be funded with $3 billion in surplus state revenue. After this first year, the institute will see up to $300 million appropriated each year.
By approving this initial funding, state leaders are hoping to attract physicians, researchers, and experts in the field of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and related disorders in this state, to Texas. The institute would research all brain diseases and be governed by a board of physicians and scientists with expertise in brain research. Grants could be awarded for projects addressing the causes, prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of patients, as well as creating new medicines and new facilities to help treat them.
Texas is growing older faster than the rest of the nation. The Texas Department of State Health Services reports that 459,000 Texans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, about 12% of the state’s population over the age of 65. Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, accounts for about 80% of cases, according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. While a 2023 study shows that the eastern and southeastern United States have the highest prevalence of Alzheimer’s, Texas is one of three states that has the highest estimated number of older residents who are at risk of Alzheimer’s.
The symptoms — memory loss and the inability to perform simple tasks — tend to develop in the mid-to-late 60s and occur when clumps of abnormal proteins block the communication of brain cells. Symptoms can be mild at first and worsen over time.
Of the nearly 7 million Americans living with Alzheimer’s, nearly two-thirds are women, and dementia care costs Americans more than $300 billion a year. The cost of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s is estimated to be $1 trillion by 2050, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
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