Treatment And Management Options For Those With Alzheimer

There are both medication based treatments and non-medication based treatments available for those who have Alzheimer's disease. Doctors have choices when it comes to designing treatment plans for...

There are both medication based treatments and non-medication based treatments available for those who have Alzheimer’s disease. Doctors have choices when it comes to designing treatment plans for their patients with Alzheimer’s. The FDA has approved two different classes of drugs for the treatment of those with Alzheimer’s disease including cholinesterase inhibitors and partial glutamate antagonists. Non-medication based treatments involve quality of caregivers and changing the environment to improve the comfort and security of the individual with Alzheimer’s.

The treatment plan for the individual with Alzheimer’s disease should include meeting the needs of both the cognitive symptoms and the behavioral symptoms. The cognitive symptoms will affect things like the individual’s memory, his or her language ability, ability to make safe judgments, complex planning and having the ability to pay attention to thought processes. The behavioral symptoms will affect how the individual acts and feels.

The FDA has approved medications to treat the cognitive symptoms called Cholinesterase inhibitors. This class of drug prevents the breakdown of acetylcholine, which is important to how the individual learns and for maintenance of memory. This class of drug can help to delay worsening of cognitive symptoms for 6 to 12 months if started in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. The most commonly prescribed cholinesterase inhibitors are Aricept, Exelon and Razadyne. Aricept treats all stages of Alzheimer’s, Exelon has been approved to treat both mild and moderate Alzheimer’s and Razadyne also treats both mild and moderate Alzheimer’s.

Another drug that has been used to treat cognitive symptoms is Memantine (Namenda). This drug works to regulate the activity of glutamate. This chemical is also involved in the learning process and ability of the individual to remember things.

Treatments that are designed to assist with behavioral symptoms address physical or verbal outbursts, emotional distress, restlessness, pacing, hallucinations, and delusions that may be experienced by the individual suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. It is these symptoms that can be the most distressing for family members and close friends to watch their loved one with Alzheimer’s go through. Doctors usually try non-medication approaches to help relieve these symptoms before going to the medication-based treatments. It is important when trying the non-medicated methods that all caregivers understand that the individual with Alzheimer’s is not being mean or doing these things on purpose but that these are all symptoms of Alzheimer’s. It is often helpful to change whenever possible the environment in order to resolve the obstacles or challenges faced by the individual in order to comfort them, give them and the caregivers peace of mind and also for security reasons. If any behavioral symptoms have a sudden onset the individual should be examined by a doctor to determine any treatable conditions that may be contributing to the behaviors. These treatable conditions may include having medication side effects in which the medication can be adjusted or changed, pain from infections that may cause agitation or restlessness and problems with hearing or vision that may add to the individual’s confusion or frustration that can be corrected by hearing aids or glasses.

Factors in the environment that may be changed to decrease confusion or restlessness or fear may include removing loud noises, changing caregivers, or moving to a new residence or care environment like to a nursing home or hospital when the need arises to give higher standards of care when physical or psychological needs arise.

In order to determine if changing the environment is necessary the caregivers or family members should look to see if the individual is receiving physical comfort for hunger, thirst, pain relief, constipation, bladder issues, fatigue, infections or skin irritations including bed sores as well as an environment that has a comfortable room temperature. Caregivers must be non-confrontational in dealing with the individual at the same time seeing to the comfort and safety of the individual with Alzheimer’s. The environment should be as calm as possible. The environment should provide both comfort and security. All dangerous objects must be removed including knives and other sharp objects and guns. There should be safety locks on all doors and gates.

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