Disclaimer: Never stop taking prescription drugs without your doctor's permission.
Often people would assume that medication is supposed to alleviate the pain of an illness, disease or condition. Most often people don't suspect that the medication could actually worsen the problem. Some medications for Alzheimer's, in particular, are becoming more and more dangerous for the elderly to pursue. Even some medications approved by the FDA are causing ill effects. The pharmaceutical company Pfizer is now pulling away from releasing new drugs to treat Alzheimer's due to the rising problems with Alzheimer's medication.
Rising Problems
The most common drug pushed to treat this condition are cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs), which are essentially drugs that break down acetylcholine. Lower levels of this chemical are common in the Alzheimer's patient's brain. The break down of this chemical is supposed to disperse it more in the brain to help with the issue. However, there is no evidence so far that this actually helps.
The American Medical Association's Test
The American Medical Association published an article in their
JAMA journal with a study that tried to determine the effectiveness of the drugs using CHEIs in their medication. They also tested this case for the drug called memantine (also called Namenda). The results confirmed that neither of these drugs helped those with Alzheimer's. In fact, the studies showed that drugs like these caused cognitive decline in their patients.
Alzheimer's Drugs Make Things Worse
The studies concluded that taking drugs like Namenda or drugs with CHEIs can lead to cognitive decline. Usually, people taking their family members in for treatment for this disease would want exactly the opposite. The problem that they were trying to alleviate in the first place is only exacerbated by the supposed treatment. This is certainly a problem that most drug companies are more likely trying to fix.
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