ADHD drugs may treat Alzheimer’s symptoms: Pills like Ritalin trigger part of brain that affects memory, learning and attention, study finds
- Significant improvements in 60-85-year-olds with dementia receiving ADHD medication
- Drugs stimulate an area of the brain that affects things like learning and memory
- The British team looked at 19 studies from 40 years ago involving 2,000 patients
By Health Reporter for Mailonline
Posted: 23:30, 5 July 2022 | Updated: 23:46, July 5, 2022
Common drugs given to hyperactive children could also treat Alzheimer’s, research suggests.
Dementia patients given ADHD drugs such as Ritalin have seen significant improvements in their cognitive and brain function, according to a review.
Drugs are thought to be a good partner because they trigger a brain region that affects things like attention, learning and memory.
British researchers looked at 19 studies dating back 40 years and involving nearly 2,000 patients, mostly between the ages of 65 and 80.
Participants given noradrenergic drugs saw a “small but significant” improvement in overall cognition, including memory, verbal fluency and language.
The team also found that the drugs affected behavior and made patients feel less apathetic and unmotivated.
Researchers from Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge and University College London are now calling for more clinical trials of the drugs’ effect on Alzheimer’s. They say there is “good evidence” that drugs can help.
Common drugs given to hyperactive children, such as Ritalin, may treat Alzheimer’s disease, research suggests
The team analyzed 19 studies published between 1980 and 2021 that looked at the effect of ADHD drugs on people with Alzheimer’s and mild cognitive impairment.
The drugs, which are given to patients between two weeks and a year, work by targeting norepinephrine, a chemical released by a network of specialized neurons in the body.
This network is critical for many cognitive processes, including attention, learning, memory, and inhibition of inappropriate behavior.
The drugs had no effect on attention, according to the study. But there were small improvements in overall cognition and a “large positive effect” on symptoms of apathy.
Responding to the findings, Dr Mark Dallas, associate professor of cellular neuroscience at the University of Reading, said repurposing drugs that already exist to treat dementia is an “exciting prospect”.
He said the review, published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, was “an interesting tease that drugs used to manage other conditions may join the fight against dementia.”
University of Nottingham assistant professor of psychology Dr Andrew Reid said the study showed a “promising new avenue of research” as it offered “a way of identifying individuals at risk and providing treatment for them much earlier than is currently possible “.
Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, affecting over half a million people in the UK and around 6 million in the US.
The disease causes brain cells to die and areas of the brain to change – including the noradrenergic system.
Dr Rosa Sancho, head of research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “There are currently no drugs approved to treat apathy in Alzheimer’s disease, a symptom that is linked to a lower quality of life, faster deterioration and increased stress for caregivers.
“This well-conducted meta-analysis highlights the potential of noradrenergic drugs to treat some aspects of Alzheimer’s disease, but the evidence in the studies reviewed here varies in quality and it is difficult to directly compare the results of each study because the methods are not consistent.
“We still can’t be sure what effect these drugs might have on a person’s daily life, and we don’t know if any benefits they provide would outweigh the risks.”
Like any medication, ADHD medications can have side effects. The most common are loss of appetite and sleep problems.
Less common side effects include nervousness, irritability, moodiness, headache, stomach pain, fast heart rate, and high blood pressure.
What is Alzheimer’s?
Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative brain disease in which the accumulation of abnormal proteins causes nerve cell death.
This disrupts the transmitters that carry messages and causes the brain to shrink.
More than 5 million people suffer from the disease in the US, where it is the 6th leading cause of death, and over 1 million Britons have it.
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
As brain cells die, the functions they provide are lost.
This includes memory, orientation, and the ability to think and reason.
The development of the disease is slow and gradual.
On average, patients live five to seven years after diagnosis, but some can live ten to 15 years.
EARLY SYMPTOMS:
- Short-term memory loss
- Disorientation
- Changes in behavior
- Mood swings
- Difficulty handling money or making a phone call
LATE SYMPTOMS:
- Severe memory loss, forgetting close family members, familiar objects or places
- Become anxious and frustrated by an inability to understand the world, leading to aggressive behavior
- Eventually they lose the ability to walk
- There may be feeding problems
- Most will eventually need 24-hour care
Source: Alzheimer’s Association
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