After reading an article and writing a blog post about memory degenerative diseases last week I decided to continue my research on the topic. I found another article that discusses a drug that can help with the agitation of alzheimer's patients. The drug, Nuedexta, combines a cough suppressant and a heart medication.
The article discusses the periods of agitation that alzheimer's patients go through. These agitations range from restlessness and pacing to aggressiveness such as yelling, fighting and destructiveness. Previously antipsychotics were prescribed to help calm the agitations but there were many problems that arose from these drugs. Antipsychotics have been proven to speed mental declination, which is why the drug Nuedexta, was a better alternative. Although the drug was proving a decline in agitation, studies showed that patients who were taking the drug had suffered from falls or urinary tract infections.
I found this article highly informative and very interesting because it was very strange to me that a drug that combined a cough suppressant and a heart medication would help calm agitation that arose from memory degenerating diseases. It is very cool that medicine is always changing and developing and you have endless possibilities and cures because you never know what combination of medications may work to cure certain ailments.
Norton, Amy. "Drug May Calm Agitation in Alzheimer's Patients." Medicine Net. N.p., 22 Sept. 2015. Web. 22 Nov. 2015. <http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=190766>.
Rachel Grzanka
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