Neurológia pre prax 1/2011

New in pharmacotherapy of dementia

There has been only symptomatic treatment focused on amelioration of cognitive and behavioural symptoms. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and N-acetyl-M-aspartate antagonist are currently the standard treatment in the most frequent dementia, Alzheimer’s disease. In clinical practice, there is a tendency to broaden the spectrum of indications in present drugs, including the treatment of early dementia stages or the treatment of different types of dementia. Simultaneously, new drug forms are tested. Regarding the research area, multiple of brand new drug molecules reached the clinical phase. In some of them, causal influence on the Alzheimer’s dementia is expected. We mention the most important of those molecules in our article.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, memantin, amyloid-beta.