Drug treatments of dementia.

Present drug treatments for the more common types of dementia are largely palliative or symptomatic, but the promise of drugs to prevent the development of dementia does not seem unrealistic. Neuropharmacological strategies that aim to improve behavioural or cognitive symptoms in dementia are subdivided into drugs that modify central cholinergic, serotonergic, dopaminergic, GABAnergic, and peptidergic transmission. There are no clear clinical guidelines for the management of demented patients who are also hypertensive. The early identification of patients with incipient dementia, the detection of slight but theoretically important beneficial effects, the optimum method of drug administration, more soundly based treatment of behavioural symptoms, and the evaluation of drug combinations are all identified as areas requiring further research.