Risk of cognitive decline lower for women treated with oral hypoglycaemics
Taking oral hypoglycaemic agents can lower the risk of cognitive decline in elderly women with type 2 diabetes, and may therefore reduce their likelihood of developing dementia.
Results from a study of over 121,000 women aged 70–81 years have
shown that those with type 2 diabetes were 25–35 per cent more
likely to score badly on cognition tests than those who did not have
diabetes. But those who were taking oral hypoglycaemic agents to treat
their diabetes had similar cognition scores to those without diabetes
(BMJ 2004;328:548).
The findings come from a prospective cohort study of US nurses, aged
30–55 years in 1976, 90 per cent of whom have been followed to
date. Previous epidemiological studies, mostly conducted in men, have
shown that type 2 diabetes increases the risk of cognitive decline.
From 1995–2001, women aged 70 years and older who had not had a
stroke were given baseline cognitive assessments by telephone. All results
were adjusted for potential confounding factors, such as education, smoking
and weight. In the new study, women with the worst cognition scores were
those who were not using any medicines to treat their diabetes and those
who had had diabetes for 15 years or more. Women using insulin to treat
their diabetes also had poorer cognition scores, but the authors of the
study, from Harvard Medical School, Boston, were uncertain whether or
not this simply reflected the longer duration and worse glucose control
of women requiring insulin treatment.
Insulin infusions in healthy subjects are known to increase levels of
amyloid beta, the protein linked to plaque formation in the brains of
people with Alzheimer’s disease. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal