Alzheimer's: Antipsychotics and sedatives make it worse

15 February 2007

Drugs such as the antipsychotics and sedatives speed up the progress of Alzheimer’s disease, a new study has found.

The worst combination is an antipsychotic with an antidepressant. When they are taken together, they are four times more likely to cause the disease to accelerate than doing nothing.

In the study, 224 Alzheimer’s patients were given various drug combinations for a year. While drugs designed to treat dementia marginally slowed the disease’s progress, statins – cholesterol-lowering drugs – had the most positive impact, to the surprise of the researchers.

(Source: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 2006. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.2006.104034).

E-news broadcast 15 February 2007 No.334 [Subscribe]

Alzheimer's: Antipsychotics and sedatives make it worse

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