Dementia patients can now be helped by 2 drugs that temporarily halt its symptoms

Literally thousands of dementia patients can now be helped by 2 drugs that temporarily halt its symptoms. A trial of the treatments (which costs as little as 50p a day) gave sufferers in the latter stages of the disease extra time (in fact months) to live independently and they could even hold coherent conversations. Presently the 2 drugs being Aricept, and Memantine/Ebixa are given to just 50,000 patients in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Aricept is given to approximately 50,000 patients in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease but is stopped being given once Alzheimer's has progressed beyond a certain point. This is because the drugs are considered to be no longer of any further benefit to the sufferer. But findings from a study undertaken at King’s College London, believe that they could in fact help 450,000 advanced sufferers. According to the research they divided 295 patients with advanced Alzheimer’s disease into 4 groups. One group was given donepezil, the second memantine, and the third group was given both drugs. The fourth and final group was given placebos. After a year, the patients had their mental state assessed and also their abilities to do their daily routine and tasks. The sufferers on 1 of the 2 drugs had much higher scores than all the other patients. Researchers estimated in their research that the drugs had delayed Alzheimer’s symptoms by 3-4 months. The research also said that the patients taking both drugs did not benefit any more than those taking just 1. The research also said that some patients who continued taking donepezil were able to function better for one year longer than those who had stopped taking the drugs. For more information on this research report, and other relevant research like it, then please click on: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/iop/news/records/2012/March/Dementia-drugs-can-help-more-patients-with-AD.aspx