French authority for health says Alzheimer’s drugs are useless

by Annalisa Lista - 2016.10.31

Pharmacological therapies for Alzheimer's are useless. Therefore, it does not make sense for the government to continue to pay for them. The authoritative French National Authority for Health HAS advanced this theory after carefully evaluating the studies performed to date on the most common form of dementia found in the over-65 segment of the population. Three main reasons motivated their proposal. First. The pharmacological therapies for this form of dementia provide short-term benefit, but not long-term. Second. The side effects of these drugs (digestion problems, cardiac problems and neuropsychiatric consequences) far exceed the benefits and seriously compromise the quality of life of the patient. Finally, the few positive results that have been published regarding these therapies have not been reliable. Because the study participants examined did not accurately represent the population in question. They were younger, for the most part, and in better health.