Anti-dementia Medications: Specific Agents

Dementia is a wide range of symptoms associated with a decline in cognitive functions or mental disorders severe enough to reduce a person’s ability to perform everyday activities. Pattern of impairment, course of dementia, and distinct subtypes of dementia syndromes are identifiable by using laboratory and imaging tools. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, followed by vascular dementia (VaD) or mixed forms of AD and VaD. Other forms of neurodegenerative diseases (e.g. Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body disease, frontotemporal dementia) are accompanied with dementia as well. The clinical manifestation of dementia includes cognitive impairments and mental disorders. Although there is no cure for dementia, appropriate medical treatment can improve cognitive functions, mood disorders, and the living ability of patients with dementia. Accurate and early diagnosis is extremely important for dementia treatment, and early medicine intervention can effectively alleviate the symptoms of patients with dementia and improve their daily living ability and quality of life. In this chapter, we summarized the current pharmacological therapeutics of dementia, mainly the treatment of the cognitive dysfunctions and the treatment of mental behavioral symptoms.