Antipsychotics
Drugs such as sedatives and antipsy-chotics speed up the development of
Alzheimer’s disease, a new study has found.
And the worst combination to take is an antipsychotic together with an antidepressant. Taken together, they are four times more likely to accelerate the disease than doing nothing.
In the new 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 on Alzheimer’s, much to the surprise of the researchers (J Neurol Neurosurg Psych, 2006; doi: 10.1136/jnnp.2006.104034).