OTL

Contrary to earlier evidence, anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen do not prevent Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, according to a new study.

“If people are thinking, ‘Should I take these to prevent dementia?’, the answer based on our study would be no,” said study author Dr. Eric B. Larson, executive director of the Group Health Center for Health Studies in Seattle.

The study is the work of scientists at the University of Washington, the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Group Health Cooperative, all in Seattle, and was published in the 22 April early online issue of Neurology.

This new research followed 2,700 people, with an average age of 75, for 12 years and they determined the pain killers were 66-percent more likely to lead to dementia over the course of 12 years. Once again, it wasn’t necessarily the pain killers that did this but there was an association.

Of the participants, 351 people had a history of heavy use of NSAIDs at the start of the study, and another 107 people became heavy NSAID users during the follow-up period. Heavy use was defined as having prescriptions for NSAIDs 68 percent of the time or more over a two-year period.

Lead researcher Dr Eric Larson said: “Although we hoped to find a protective effect, there was none.

“Thus, for this age group, there’s no basis for taking NSAIDs to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.”

Earlier studies conducted have established that the medications, which also include aspirin—which was not part of the new study, appear to have the power to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease in some cases, although the drugs do not seem to help the people who have already been diagnosed with the disease or those who have developed it quickly.

Characterized by forgetfulness, agitation and dementia, Alzheimer’s is caused by a massive loss of cells in several regions of the brain, driven by a buildup of plaques of amyloid protein. The disease occurs most frequently in old age.