How is it that medications to treat Alzheimer’s disease appear to show such a benefit? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Declines of several fold in rates of progression- sounds pretty good, doesn’t it, if you have the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s disease and are considering available medications. Yet a recent study by Johns Hopkins neurologist Majid Fotuhi finds that those are numbers representing relative percentages, not absolute reductions, and they pale in comparison to comprehensive lifestyle interventions.

Fotuhi: When patients take medications for Alzheimer disease, lecanemab, donanemab the two main medications, they continue to decline. Neither the patients nor their caregivers can tell that there was any medication given because the patient continues to decline. However when you look at people who didn't take the medication versus those who did take the medication there is a slight difference of let's say one to three points in the scale that goes from zero to 80, so the percent difference is significant however the big picture is still very subtle.    :31

Fotuhi notes there are also substantial risks of available Alzheimer’s medications. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.