The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7233 p105
25 January 2003

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Alzheimer's Research Trust (www.alzheimers-research.org.uk)
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Call for better Alzheimer's drugs

A substantial rise in demand for long-term care may arise unless more effective treatments for Alzheimer's disease are developed, according to researchers from the London School of Economics, in a report commissioned by the Alzheimer's Research Trust.

The researchers point out that drugs currently used in the treatment of the disease have some effect on cognitive function but that not everyone appears to benefit. They add that the number of people with cognitive impairment is likely to rise faster than the number with physical disability alone. Increasing long-term care costs due to rising numbers of older people could be largely offset by a mere 1 per cent reduction in those with cognitive impairment, they say.

The report describes existing drugs as potentially cost saving, with delayed progression of symptoms allowing institutional care at a later stage. However, it cites the National Institute for Clinical Excellence as saying that cost effectiveness could not be reliably estimated from existing evidence. Professor Martin Knapp, department of social policy, LSE, said: "Treatments that delay the progression of dementia could ... enable older people to receive informal and formal care at home for longer."