Blood pressure drugs could help dementia patients fight cognitive decline: study

Drugs used in the treatment of high blood pressure could slow the rate of cognitive decline in dementia patients, according to research.

ACE Inhibitors, also at times used to treat some cases of diabetes or some forms of kidney disease, might even improve brain power in dementia patients, scientists said.

The researchers studied 361 patients, with average age of 77, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, or a mix of both. Eighty five patients from these  were already on ACE inhibitors, the rest were not.

The researchers studied each patient's cognitive decline using one of two standardised mental state examinations on two separate occasions, six months apart. The study was published in the online journal BMJ Open.

Compared with those not taking ACE inhibitors, those who were taking the drugs showed marginally slower rates of cognitive decline.

The researchers found a small but significant difference in patients who underwent the more sensitive of the two tests.

They added brain power actually improved for 30 patients who had been newly prescribed these drugs, during their first six months of treatment, they said.

The authors said, "(These) patients started on centrally acting ACE inhibitors while attending clinic, showed a median improvement rather than a decline in scores over the first six months of treatment."

Those with high blood pressure were more at risk of developing Alzheimer's and similar diseases, however, according to the study, the drugs protected their memory and thinking skills.

ACE inhibitors such as ramipril, captopril and perindopril – had gained increasing popularity  in the past 10 years, particularly for younger patients.

The researchers in Ireland and Canada investigated drugs that acted on a specific biochemical pathway called the renin angiotensin system – a hormone system which was thought to affect the development of Alzheimer's.

The research was conducted by experts from University College Cork in Ireland and McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.

According to Dr James Pickett, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society, doctors had known for some time that high blood pressure increased people's risk of developing dementia and any drug which halted cognitive decline was potentially exciting - as it had the ability to radically improve dementia patients' quality of life.

He added, the more it was understood about dementia and how it related to other conditions like high blood pressure, the more it was possible to explore whether existing drugs such as these could double as dementia treatments.