Hypertension is a frequent pathology in the elderly. Treating it would delay the onset of dementia.
Antihypertensive drugs have been associated with a reduced risk of dementia in a new studypublished in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. The aim here was to investigate the relationship between the use of antihypertensives and dementia in older people in Germany.
“Our priority is to find medications that are associated with a reduced risk of dementia, or at least a later onset of the disease,” says Dr Jens Bohlken, of the Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health ( ISAP).
Decrease in the frequency of dementia
His research involved 12,405 patients with dementia and 12,405 people without the pathology (average age: 80.6 years). The administration of antihypertensive drugs has been associated with a decrease in the frequency of dementia. In patients treated with calcium channel blockers, increasing the duration of treatment reduced the incidence of dementia.
“Antihypertensive therapy alone cannot guarantee that dementia will never develop,” say the researchers. “However, these findings underscore the importance of prescribing antihypertensive medications in the prevention of hypertension-related cognitive decline,” they conclude.
10 million new cases each year
Today, approximately 50 million people suffer from dementia worldwide, with 10 million new cases each year. This increase can be explained in particular by longer life expectancy and better care.
Dementia is a syndrome, usually chronic or progressive, in which there is an impairment of cognitive function (ability to perform thought operations), greater than that which could be expected from normal aging. It affects memory, reasoning, orientation, comprehension, calculation, learning ability, language and judgment. Consciousness is not affected. This term encompasses many diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease or that of Parkinsons.
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