Drug That Revolutionized Psychiatry Could Prevent Dementia By ‘Encouraging’ Study Results –

A drug that treats depression could be used to prevent dementia in groundbreaking research praised by Scottish experts.

A study of 30,000 people found that those who were prescribed lithium were less likely to develop the disease.

Previous research had suggested that the drug could be used as a potential treatment for people already diagnosed with dementia.

Dementia is the leading cause of death in older Western societies, but no preventive treatment is currently available. More than 55 million people worldwide suffer from dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease being the most common.

After controlling for factors such as smoking, other medications, and other physical and mental illnesses, lithium use has been associated with a lower risk of dementia for both short- and long-term users.

Professor Craig Ritchie, director of Brain Health Scotland, described the study results as “encouraging” and said it showed the potential of using existing drugs to treat dementia.

Delaying the onset of dementia by just five years is estimated to reduce its prevalence and economic impact by up to 40%.

TO KNOW MORE: SNP accused of breaking pre-election promise to fight “dementia tax”

Researchers from the University of Cambridge conducted a retrospective medical record analysis of nearly 30,000 patients from the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.

All patients were over the age of 50 and accessed NHS mental health services between 2005 and 2019, excluding those diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia a year or less before the start date.

Lithium is a mood stabilizer often prescribed for conditions such as bipolar mood disorder and depression. “Bipolar disorder and depression are believed to put people at greater risk for dementia, so we had to make sure we included this in our analysis,” said Dr Shanquan Chen, author of the Cambridge Department of Psychiatry.

Of the 29,618 patients in the study cohort, 548 were treated with lithium and 29,070 were not. Their mean age was just under 74 years and about 40% of the patients were male.

Of the group that received lithium, 53% or 9.7% were diagnosed with dementia.

TO KNOW MORE: The Scots could be among the first to test the first new Alzheimer’s drug in 20 years

A total of 3,244 people (11.2%) who did not take lithium were diagnosed with the disease.

However, as the overall number of patients taking lithium is small and this is an observational study, the scientists say larger clinical trials will be needed to identify lithium as a potential treatment for dementia.

The main limitation of the study was that 73% of patients in the lithium exposed group suffered from mania / bipolar mood disorder (BPAD), a major risk factor for dementia.

However, the researchers said the findings “pointed in the opposite direction” and were supported by sensitivity analyzes.

“We were hoping to find that patients with bipolar disorder are more likely to develop dementia because that’s the most common reason lithium is prescribed, but our analysis suggested otherwise,” Chen said. It’s too early to say for sure, but it’s possible that lithium may reduce the risk of dementia in people with bipolar disorder.

“The number of people with dementia continues to rise, putting enormous pressure on health systems.

TO KNOW MORE: Faced with the “postcode lottery”, the Scots seek diagnosis and help

“Delaying the onset of dementia by just five years is estimated to reduce its prevalence and economic impact by up to 40 percent.”

The discovery of lithium as a mind-altering drug changed the course of modern psychiatry.

The use of lithium, a natural salt, dates back to the mid-19th century, but its widespread discovery is usually attributed to Australian psychiatrist John Cade, who introduced it for bipolar disorder in 1949.

It was found in the 1960s to prevent the recurrence of manic and depressive episodes.

Professor Ritchie, an aging psychiatry expert at the University of Edinburgh, said:

“This is a very interesting finding from the review of the medical record that complements previous studies linking lithium treatment to reducing the risk of dementia.

“Lithium itself is known to affect the tau protein in the brain, which is abnormally high in Alzheimer’s disease.

“While there is much more work to be done in this area to see if lithium has therapeutic potential, this is certainly encouraging and also demonstrates the potential of using existing drugs to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s disease.”

Source: Herald Scotland

follow:
\