Dementia

Benzodiazepine use does not increase dementia risk in older adults

Ten-year study found no increased risk of dementia or cognitive decline among participants given the highest levels of benzodiazepines.…

Dementia risk could be predicted using GP records

UCL model shows promise in predicting dementia risk for patients aged 60-79 years.…

Prescriptions for Alzheimer’s drugs rise six-fold over past decade

Prescriptions for Alzheimer’s disease drugs donepezil, galantamine, memantine and rivastigmine went up from 502,000 in 2014 to 3 million in 2014, according to official figures published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.…

Alzheimer’s will be treated with ‘cocktail’ of drugs, predicts neuroscientist

Patients with Alzheimer’s disease will probably be treated with a cocktail of drugs in the future, a neuroscientist told the annual University College London school of pharmacy lecture at the Royal Society in central London on 12 January 2016.…

Androgen depriving drugs could double Alzheimer’s disease risk

Androgen deprivation therapy is a mainstay of prostate cancer treatment, but it could double the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in the long term.…

Deprescribing drugs for care home residents could improve quality of life

The use of multiple medicines is still a major problem in British care homes, from the impact on residents to the strain on NHS resources, but ‘deprescribing’ can mitigate these risks.…

How lifestyle changes could reduce the risk of developing dementia

Evidence is emerging that some dementia cases could be prevented by leading a healthy lifestyle but long-term studies are needed to confirm the strength of the association.…

Antipsychotic drug guidelines for patients with dementia need to be reviewed

Guidelines for reviewing the use of antipsychotic drugs to control neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with dementia need urgent review, say researchers.…

Blister packs for Alzheimer’s drugs to be redesigned to reduce confusion for patients

The blister packs of drugs for people with Alzheimer’s disease will, from summer 2016, be marked with days of the week in order to reduce confusion when patients take their medicine, the UK medicines safety regulator has announced.…

Donepezil may delay nursing home admission in moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease

Discontinuing donepezil in Alzheimer’s patients as their disease worsens could double the risk of admission into a nursing home within a year, suggests a study published in The Lancet Neurology.…