Pharmaceuticals and their effect on people with dementia

Dementia is a general term that includes several diseases that affect the brain in different ways but similar in memory loss such as Alzheimer’s disease (which is the most common), Parkinson’s disease, vascular dementia, frontotemporal dementia and Lewy body dementia. Theses disease lead to a total dependency on other people over a period of 2 to 10 years.

Most older people, particularly those living with Alzheimer’s disease, use various medications, on average 7 to 10 pills per day. These medications may affect them negatively and even increase the state of mental confusion they suffer from or they may use medications for long periods of time without returning to the doctor to re-evaluate them. All of this burdens them immensely that they may live better if they get rid of them.

Here are some medications recommended to be avoided for people with dementia as they are more harmful than helpful:

• Anticholinergic drugs
• Buscopan drug – medication for joint-aches
• Diuretics -  medicines that help reduce fluid build-up in the body
• Antihistamines
• Sleeping pills – sedatives with a drugged effect
• Gastric reflux medications
• Old school tricyclic antidepressants
• Muscle relaxants
• Medication for urinary incontinence and bladder activity
• Anticonvulsant drugs - treatment of epileptic seizures

These medications are usually prescribed for dementia patients with disruptive behavioural changes and are anti-seizure medications:

• Depakote (Divalproex)
• Carbamazepine (Tegretol)

These medications should be avoided except in the case of epilepsy as they are harmful and useless in treating behavioural symptoms that patients with dementia have.