Pharmacotherapy of Cognitive Impairment in Alzheimer's Disease: A Review

Abstract

Experimental pharmacotherapy of cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease has seen a recent proliferation of drug trials involving a wide variety of drugs. Many of the earlier studies focused on cholinergic agents. However, subsequent advances in basic and biological sciences have broadened the scope of therapeutic strategies beyond the neurotransmitter approaches to include neurotrophic, metabolic-enhancing, membrane-modifying, and antitoxic agents, and have also provided rationale for developing antiamyloid and anti-infective therapies. For the clinician, it has not been easy to keep abreast of these developments. In this article, I present an overview of the cognition-enhancing drugs that have been used in the past, of those currently under investigation, and of new drugs and strategies that are likely to receive attention in the next few years.