AI Article Synopsis

  • Common diseases like diabetes and hypertension could increase the risk of dementia, and their treatments might help slow cognitive decline.
  • Certain medications may positively impact brain health beyond their main purpose, while others, like benzodiazepines and anti-cholinergic drugs, could worsen cognitive function.
  • There is a lack of research on how treating chronic illnesses affects dementia risk, prompting the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation to create a panel to explore effective strategies for this issue.

Article Abstract

Common diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and atrial fibrillation are probable risk factors for dementia, suggesting that their treatments may influence the risk and rate of cognitive and functional decline. Moreover, specific therapies and medications may affect long-term brain health through mechanisms that are independent of their primary indication. While surgery, benzodiazepines, and anti-cholinergic drugs may accelerate decline or even raise the risk of dementia, other medications act directly on the brain to potentially slow the pathology that underlies Alzheimer's and other dementia. In other words, the functional and cognitive decline in vulnerable patients may be influenced by the choice of treatments for other medical conditions. Despite the importance of these questions, very little research is available. The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation convened an advisory panel to discuss the existing evidence and to recommend strategies to accelerate the development of comparative effectiveness research on how choices in the clinical care of common chronic diseases may protect from cognitive decline and dementia.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4992192PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13195-016-0200-3DOI Listing

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