Dementia and the disappearing subject: a framing analysis of drugs for dementia in UK news media

Dementia affects 55 million people worldwide and is a global priority as governments, health services and care providers grapple with how to provide care for people with dementia and their families. In the UK, drug treatments for dementia have been available since the early 2000s. There has been significant controversy regarding the efficacy and effectiveness of pharmaceuticals. Using framing analysis, we investigated how dementia drugs were framed in UK news media between 2011 and 2018. Framing devices do discursive work in setting out what kind of problem dementia is. We show that news media framed pharmaceutical ‘cures’ for dementia in four different ways: to solve the problem of dementia for the individual; to prevent and eliminate the catastrophic ills of dementia for society; to combat the rising cost of dementia; and to mobilise political will and investment in a pharmaceutical cure. We pay particular attention to how the dominant discourse of hope constituted desired-for, imagined futures. We argue that parallel discourses on eliminating dementia and problematic ageing adopt dehumanising language and metaphors which produce an ageless pharmaceutical future in which the need to care for people with dementia, or older people more generally, is eradicated. • UK news media presents a narrative where one drug could cure all types of dementia. • Drug cure is framed as solving the problem of dementia for individuals and society. • Media portrayal dehumanises the disease experience, celebrates the drug. • Hope for cure remains constant over time despite drugs having minimal effects. • Promissory language of future drug breakthroughs obscures present care needs.