A new study has linked common medicines like antibiotics, antivirals and vaccinations with a reduced risk of dementia.
Following a systematic review of existing medicines across 14 studies and covering over a million cases of dementia, researchers have identified dozens of medications which could be linked with the risk of dementia.
While the results are not “immediately clear”, the research has highlighted some intriguing patterns.
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Four vaccines, including those that protect against diphtheria, hepatitis A, typhoid, and combined hep A and typhoid, have been associated with a decreased risk of dementia between 8 and 32 per cent.
While the reason for this is not clear, the international team of researchers noted that common risk factors for dementia are viral and bacterial infections. “There is increasing interest in vaccination as being generally protective,” according to the study.
“Our findings support these hypotheses and lend further weight to these agents as being potentially disease-modifying or preventative for dementia,” the team concludes.
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Progress in dementia treatment
While the research only reveals the associations between the two, the cause behind dementia or how these medications might help in preventing it is not known yet. However, the link opens the door to scientists for further research in the right direction.
Despite decades of research and billions of dollars in investment in the area, only a few drugs have been approved for dementia, most of which are only focused on treating the systems, while others result in severe side effects.
However, identifying those drugs among the sheer volume of available drugs is not an easy task.
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“Pooling these massive health data sets provides one source of evidence which we can use to help us focus on which drugs we should try first,” explains old-age psychiatrist Benjamin Underwood from the University of Cambridge. He led the recent review with dementia researcher Ilianna Lourida from the University of Exeter. The study was published in Alzheimer's and Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions.
Link with other medications
A drug used to induce labour was found to protect the ageing of brains in mice. In humans, popular diabetes and weight loss drugs, like Ozempic, were shown to reduce the risk of dementia.
The researchers also discovered that anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen may also be linked with reduced risk of dementia. On the other hand, antihypertensives and antidepressants showed conflicting results.
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Recent studies have indicated that dementia may occur due to brain issues from high blood pressure or chronic inflammation. However, further research is needed to determine whether the medications prescribed for the treatment of those issues play a role in cognitive decline and their impact on dementia risk.
“We're hopeful this will mean we can find some much-needed new treatments for dementia and speed up the process of getting them to patients,” said Underwood.
“If we can find drugs that are already licensed for other conditions, then we can get them into trials and, crucially, may be able to make them available to patients much, much faster than we could do for an entirely new drug.”
(With inputs from agencies)