Medications for the Alzheimer’s disease

Medications for the Alzheimer’s disease

Introduction

The Alzheimer is an ailment that progresses with time in the brain of a human being. Its features include the loss of memory and the disturbance to the ability of the thinking capacity of a human being. We think of the old people when we hear of the Alzheimer disease. Research has shown that it is more prevalent in the people at the age of sixty five and above. Dementia is any disease that has an impact to the brain of a human being and so the Alzheimer can be classified into that category.

Diagnosis exclusion is a term derived from the diagnosis of the Alzheimer disease. From the argument above, we can say that there is no known test for this disease. What happens is that tests to rule out other diseases will lead to the conclusion of the Alzheimer disease. The signs of this disease noticeable in older people include, forgetting to switch off a gas cooker, forgetting to take the prescribed medications in a certain day or even not recalling the exact medications to take.

As the disease keep on progressing, there are clear signs of the reducing intellectual functioning as well as the abstract thinking. In the final stages of the disease, the person can end up becoming disoriented and confused. At this point, the patient health condition completely deteriorates and he or she will end up having other illnesses such as pneumonia that can suddenly lead to death. ( Connors et al.,2018).

This illness does not actually cause death but the person dies as a result of other health related diseases. It lasts between six to eight years though it can be present in someone for two to twenty years without clear signs and symptoms. The beginning of the disease is very slow and to an ignorant person, it is hard to notice.

Medications for the Disease;

Alzheimer has a lot of complexity. There are few chances that one drug or one medication will contain it successfully. Most modern approaches are meant to help people with the disease have a stable mental functioning, retard the growth of its symptoms and the professional management of the behavioral symptoms.

Many countries have professional bodies that regulate the drugs that are prescribed for the management of the disease. In the United States of America, they have the Food and Drug administration, the FDA. The treatment and the management of the Alzheimer disease gives people the dignity, the independence and the comfort for a very long duration and goes a long way into the assisting and encouraging the guardians of those people as well.

Many medications can work efficiently either in the middle stages or the early stages for the menace. For instance, the medications will slow down the signs and the symptoms like the loss of memory for a particular time. The most important thing to understand is that actually none of those medications can stop and cure the disease completely; it is just a matter of managing it.

Medications for the Alzheimer mild to moderate cases

For the people in the category described above, cholinesterase inhibitors are prescribed and administered. This drug helps minimize quite number of symptoms and the behavioural symptoms are controlled as well. They include Exelon, the Aricept as well as the Razadyne.

The scientists have not yet understood the manner in which the cholinesterate function in the management of the Alzheimer disease, although the research findings have shown that they slow down and finally prevent the acetycholine. This is a chemical that researchers have made us believe that it is meant to maintain proper functioning of thinking and memory.

The disadvantage with this drug is that as the Alzheimer develops the production from the brain become less and less which in the final end, it will lead to loss of its effect. For the drugs above, the scientists have not yet come up with a formula to compare their functions. Therefore the patient can respond with one drug as compared to another and vice versa.

Medication for Alzheimer moderate to severe cases.

A drug known as the Namenda, that is, an n-methyl D-aspartate, the NMDA antagonist is the one used for the treatment of the moderate to the severe cases of the Alzheimer disease. The function of the drug has mainly been to minimize the symptoms associated with the disease so that they can move on with their daily without being affected by the symptoms as they would do without it. For instance, the drug can help the person keep his or her ability in holding and using the bathroom without any support for a long period, quite an advantage to the person with the disease and the guardians as well. ( Ehret & Chamberlin,2015).

The Food and the Drug Administration has also seconded the following drugs for the patients in this category, the Aricept, the Exelon, the Namzari, with its constituents as the Aricept and the Namenda as well.

There is a critical brain chemical, known as the glutamate in which the Namenda drug is believed to control and regulate. In the production of the glutamate, when in amounts, it causes the death of the brain cells. As compared to the cholinesterate inhibitors, the NMDA function differently hence the two medications can be prescribed together.

The Side effects and the Dosage of the medications for the Alzheimer disease;

The health practitioners will usually start off the process of treatment by administering the drug doses at a low rate and will increase the dosage gradually based on how the patient reacts to the drug. There are some evidences from researchers that most patients benefit from higher doses of cholinesterate inhibitors. However, the downside of this is that the higher doses will have the side effects.

The people suffering from this disease are usually monitored the drug administering is started. All these medications above will have some of the expected side effects such as the loss of appetite, the diarrhoea, the vomiting as well as the nausea. The best thing to do after the caregiver observes these symptoms is to report to the prescribing physician immediately. In this period, it is very important to toe to the line of the doctor instructions, in which most of them prescribe herbal supplements and vitamins. It is important also to let the doctor know before you change any medication or even adding another. (Cummings et al.,2015).

The management of the behavioural symptoms of Alzheimer;

The common symptoms include the agitation, wandering, anxiety, aggression, restlessness, depression as well as the sleeplessness. The researchers keep on learning the above mentioned symptoms and keep on finding new drugs and the non-drug medications in order to manage them. Some evidences show that the treatment of the behavioural symptoms makes people with this disease more comfortable and will also make things easier for the guardians.

Medical experts advise that the drugs for the treatment of the behavioural problems should be used only and only if the strategies that do not require medicines have been exhausted and failed to work. The non-drug strategies are advantageous in that there are no side effects.( Soto et al.,2015)

The drugs to be administered with caution for the people Alzheimer disease.

Some drugs such as the anti-anxiety drugs, the antipsychotics and sleep aids administered to the persons with this disease should be taken only and only if the doctor will have to put across the side effects and the all associated risks of the drug. Also the drugs should be taken only and only if the non-medication strategies have not worked.

Watching closely the side effects of these medications is critical

The sleep aids help the patients to have sleep and stay in it. These drugs make the person suffering from Alzheimer more confused and with high chances of to fall hence they should not be taken regularly. The patients should use other lifestyle strategies that can make them alter their sleeping patterns. (Pasqualetti et al., 2015).

The anti-anxiety drugs are mostly used to contain agitation. These drugs bring along dizziness, sleepiness, confusion and falls. For the mentioned reason, recommendations are that they ought to be used for a small period of time.

Treatment of the severe aggression is made possible by the anticonvulsants. The drugs come with side effects such as mood swings, the dizziness, confusion as well as sleepiness.

Antipsychotics are used to medical conditions such as agitation, aggression, hallucinations and paranoia. The side effects of this drug are dire, especially for the people with dementia and can actually lead to death. They are administered to persons with Alzheimer only if the doctor agrees that the symptoms are dire and severe. (St John-Williams et al., 2017)

Conclusion

People with this disease should be subjected to situations only advised by a qualified medical personnel. Never administer a drug that has been suggested by a medical doctor. This way, the person can stay for a long time than anticipated.

References

Connors, M. H., Ames, D., Woodward, M., & Brodaty, H. (2018). Psychosis and clinical outcomes in Alzheimer disease: a longitudinal study. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 26(3), 304-313. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1064748117305122

Ehret, M. J., & Chamberlin, K. W. (2015). Current practices in the treatment of Alzheimer disease: where is the evidence after the phase III trials?. Clinical therapeutics, 37(8), 1604-1616. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149291815008528

Cummings, J. L., Lyketsos, C. G., Peskind, E. R., Porsteinsson, A. P., Mintzer, J. E., Scharre, D. W., … & Shin, P. (2015). Effect of dextromethorphan-quinidine on agitation in patients with Alzheimer disease dementia: a randomized clinical trial. Jama, 314(12), 1242-1254. Retrieved from https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2442936

Pasqualetti, G., Tognini, S., Calsolaro, V., Polini, A., & Monzani, F. (2015). Potential drug–drug interactions in Alzheimer patients with behavioral symptoms. Clinical interventions in aging, 10, 1457. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4573195/

Soto, M., Andrieu, S., Nourhashemi, F., Ousset, P. J., Ballard, C., Robert, P., … & Rosenberg, P. B. (2015). Medication development for agitation and aggression in Alzheimer disease: review and discussion of recent randomized clinical trial design. International psychogeriatrics, 27(2), 181-197. Retrieved from https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-psychogeriatrics/article/medication-development-for-agitation-and-aggression-in-alzheimer-disease-review-and-discussion-of-recent-randomized-clinical-trial-design/93A5859DC835AE54FBB2F453446E79D1

St John-Williams, L., Blach, C., Toledo, J. B., Rotroff, D. M., Kim, S., Klavins, K., … & Massaro, T. J. (2017). Targeted metabolomics and medication classification data from participants in the ADNI1 cohort. Scientific data, 4, 170140.Retrieved from https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata2017140