Treatment
Currently, there's no cure for Alzheimer's disease. Doctors sometimes prescribe drugs to improve symptoms that often accompany Alzheimer's, including sleeplessness, wandering, anxiety, agitation and depression. But only two varieties of medications have been proved to slow the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's.
Cholinesterase inhibitors
This group of medications — which includes donepezil (Aricept), rivastigmine (Exelon) and galantamine (Reminyl) — works by improving the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain. Donepezil has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of mild, moderate and severe Alzheimer's disease.
Donepezil also appears to delay the onset of Alzheimer's for about a year in people who have mild cognitive impairment (MCI). People who have MCI have more memory problems than other people their age, but they are not demented.
Cholinesterase inhibitors don't work for everyone. As many as half the people who take these drugs show no improvement. Other people may choose to stop taking the drugs because of the side effects, which include diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.
Memantine (Namenda)
The first drug approved to treat moderate to severe stages of Alzheimer's, memantine (Namenda), protects brain cells from damage caused by the chemical messenger glutamate. It sometimes is used in combination with a cholinesterase inhibitor. Memantine's most common side effect is dizziness, although it also appears to increase agitation and delusional behavior in some people.
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