The person is Grace Wade.
A person with Alzheimer's is being scanned.
Atthapon Raksthaput is a stock photo.
People with Alzheimer's disease may benefit from the use of medication to treat conditions like attention deficit disorder and depression.
It is thought that this class of drugs may be useful for treating Alzheimer's. Autopsies of people who had died of Alzheimer's showed a decline in a part of the brain called the LC. Noradrenaline is important for attention, learning, memory and other cognitive functions. The hope was that by increasing noradrenaline levels, they could fight deficits in people with Alzheimer's.
After a few small trials failed to produce convincing results, interest faded.
Researchers have been able to measure the LC's decline in living patients and see how it contributes to their symptoms.
David and his colleagues took a fresh look at the treatments after this advancement. There are 1811 patients with Alzheimer's disease or the related condition mild cognitive impairment who were collected by the researchers.
The drugs impact on general cognitive ability was evaluated in 10 of the studies. The drugs led to modest improvements compared with placebos, and the standardised mean difference was.14. There is a standardised mean difference of.38 between Alzheimer's patients and trials of cholinesterase inhibitor.
The researchers looked at eight trials with a large number of patients. Common scoring systems were used to measure changes in motivation. The standardised mean difference was.45. There were no effects for other symptoms.
One of the most common symptoms of Alzheimer's is a loss of motivation. This aspect of the condition is currently not treated by approved medications.
Jim Ray is a researcher at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center who was not involved in the research. I believe that the impact of this publication is possible.
More research is needed to find out which class of drugs would work the best. Each of the 12 medications has a different impact on the brain. It's not clear how their effects will vary across stages of the disease. Results from clinical trials won't be available for a few more years.
David says that people with Alzheimer's can live for a long time. If you can make a difference early on, you have the ability to impact them and their loved ones for a long time.
The Journal of Neurology and Psychiatry is a journal.
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