Research: Community Care and Drug treatments

Community care and Drug treatments

Community Care

·      ‘Community care’ is a general term for services provided to help people with illness or disability to continue to live in their own homes and to encourage independence.

·      Legislation confirms Social Services departments’ responsibility to assess people’s needs (by a procedure known as a needs assessment).

·      The aim is that services will be provided to keep people in their own homes for as long as possible.

·      There are a number of different services designed to support people in their own homes.

·      However, the range and level of services vary a great deal from area to area.

Are any forms of dementia curable?

·      Some rare forms of dementia-including those associated with an under-active thyroid gland, brain tumours, or some vitamin deficiencies (for example, of vitamin B12 ).

·      Most types of dementia, however, cannot be cured and those that can be are very rare.

Drug treatments

·      No drugs have been discovered that can cure Alzheimer’s disease or stop it from getting worse over time.

·      Some dementia drugs are now available that may improve some of the symptoms such as memory loss and disorientation, and can slow down the progression of the symptoms.

·      Other kinds of drugs are sometimes useful for treating some of the changes in behaviour, such as sleeplessness and agitation.

·      The main development has been the introduction of two types of drugs.

·      The first type is called cholinesterase inhibitors or anticholinesterase drugs. These drugs reduce the breakdown of acetylcholine, a chemical found in the brain.

·      Anticholinesterase drugs currently available in the UK include donepezil (Aricept), galantamine (Reminyl) and rivastigmine (Exelon).

·      The second type of drug is NMDA antagonists. NMDA stands for N-methyl-D-aspartate, one of the chemicals involved in memory. At present one drug of this type is available, called memantine (Ebixa).

How do the dementia drugs help people with Alzheimer’s disease?

·      Several clinical trials have found that anticholinesterase drugs seem to relieve some of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in some people.

·      People who take these drugs may experience a slight improvement, but the main effect is that the drugs delay worsening of symptoms of dementia-in some people by up to six months, or even longer.

·      These drugs do not work in all patients and their effect is variable.

Reflection
The main thing I will take from this research is that although dementia isn't curable there are some drugs available which can help if the dementia is caught early enough, which is why it is important for an early diagnosis.