Types of Medication

There are two different aspects to using medication in the treatment for Dementia. The first, and most obvious, is to try and effectively treat the Dementia itself. The second is to help relieve the non-cognitive symptoms a patient may be experiencing such as depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, and hallucinations, amongst others.

Dementia Drugs

Commonly known drugs for treating Dementia are Aricept, Exelon, Reminyl, and the newest of these type of drugs, Ebixa. They all work in a similar way, (known as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors), and are used to treat patients in the early to mid stages of Alzheimer's Disease. A chemical called acetylcholine is used by the nerve cells in the brain when communicating. In Alzheimer's Disease, acetylcholine is broken down by enzymes so that there is not enough for the nerve cells to use effectively.

Aricept, Exelon, Reminyl, and Ebixa can prevent the enzyme from breaking down the acetylcholine in the brain which in turn leads to increased communication between nerve cells. Once communication has been re-established again, it can temporarily improve or stabilise the symptoms of the Alzheimer's Disease. This is not effective for everyone and may only delay or temporarily improve memory loss.

Other Drugs

Until recently, antipsychotic drugs have been used extensively to treat Dementia patients. These drugs do nothing to treat Dementia itself, but do have a sedating effect on the patient, so that the symptoms are less apparent. There is a growing opinion in the health and care sectors that these drugs should be prescribed with extreme caution when being used to treat Dementia patients. They are increasingly seen as a 'chemical cosh' which masks the symptoms of Dementia due to the high level of sedation, rather than helping to relieve or treat them. There is also evidence that antipsychotic drugs have an increased health risk to elderly Dementia patients. Many antipsychotic drugs have adverse side-effects that can, in certain circumstances, have detrimental effects on the patient such as increased risk of heart attack, stroke or pneumonia.

In 2009, a UK review on the use of antipsychotic drugs found that around 180,000 Dementia patients a year are given the drugs in care homes, hospitals and their own homes to manage aggression, but only around 36,000 would actually benefit from them. As a result of the review, the UK Government accepted that better monitoring of prescribing practices was needed to ensure that antipsychotic drugs where only prescribed to Dementia patients when absolutely necessary, and for short periods of time.

Drugs