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Cognitive Enhancing Agents: Current Status in the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

Cheryl Waters*
Affiliation:
Divisions of Neurology and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Toronto, Toronto
*
University of Southern California School of Medicine, Department of Neurology, 2025 Zonal Ave., Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A. 90033
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Abstract:

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Extensive recent literature on drugs used to enhance cognitive functioning, reflects the growing social problem of dementia. Many clinical trials have been undertaken with variable success. In most cases the disorder studied has been Alzheimer's disease. The pharmacological approach has been designed to rectify the presumed pathophysiological processes characteristic of the condition. Agents tested include cerebral vasodilators, cerebral metabolic enhancers, nootropics, psychostimulants, neuropeptides and neurotransmitters with a special emphasis on drugs used to enhance cholinergic function. Ethical and practical issues concerning clinical drug trials in dementia will be discussed.

Type
Special Features And Reviews
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Neurological Sciences Federation 1988

References

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