RELEVANCE OF THE SEARCH FOR ANTI-DEMENTIA DRUGS AND ANALYSIS OF ONGOING PROMISING RESEARCH

Because of its rising incidence, significant caregiver burden, and high financial expenses, dementia is a significant public health concern. At the moment, anti-dementia medications solely target symptoms. There is a lot of disagreement over whether or not to prescribe these medications in advanced stages, and different nations have different recommendations. The evidence for cognitive and functional outcomes, adverse events, health-related expenses, and caregiver burden in individuals with advanced Alzheimer disease (AD) and mixed dementia was examined in this review paper. 35 studies were included. The majority of research is inconsistent, solely concentrates on AD, and demonstrates negligible improvements on cognitive and functional measures. Although it is challenging to determine the therapeutic significance of anti-dementia medication, the overall data appears to point to a benefit in starting or continuing anti-dementia medication in patients with advanced dementia. while a diminished overall effect, the issue of costs and caregiver stress appears to support treatment continuing while being little unexplored in this field. In cases of advanced dementia, the choice to start or stop anti-dementia medication should be made on an individual basis. Future research with similar designs and results is necessary. As a result, the pharmaceutical treatment of AD should ideally include both a disease-modifying effect to address the advancement of the degenerative process and a symptomatic effect to maintain or enhance cognition. If patients with preclinical AD are given these therapies, the ultimate goal is primary prevention. In this article, we describe current approaches aimed at altering AD's natural course and provide a brief overview of the pharmaceutical substances now used to treat its symptoms.