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Alzheimer's, Dementia & Mental Health
High Blood Pressure, Irregular Heartbeat Appear to
Speed Progress of Alzheimer’s
Treating hypertension or atrial fibrillation may slow
memory loss
 Oct. 30, 2007 – High blood pressure (hypertension),
which is common among senior citizens, or a form of irregular heartbeat,
atrial fibrillation, appear to speed up the progress of Alzheimer’s
disease, according to results of a Johns Hopkins study published in the
Nov. 6, 2007, issue of Neurology. The findings suggest that treating
these conditions may also slow memory loss in people with AD.
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Alzheimer's, Dementia & Mental Health |
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While current medications for Alzheimer’s disease
are effective for some patients in slowing the rate of AD progression,
many patients do not benefit from the treatments or cannot tolerate
them, says lead researcher Michelle M. Mielke, Ph.D., of the Department
of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine.
“The possibility that specific vascular conditions
may affect how fast a person with AD declines,” Mielke says, “provides
new opportunities for slowing the rate of AD progression. Treatments for
atrial fibrillation and high blood pressure are relatively inexpensive
and safe and may reduce memory decline in AD patients with these
conditions.”
The study examined 135 men and women over 65 who
were newly diagnosed with AD. All had undergone annual memory tests for
an average of three years.
Results showed that 10 with high blood pressure
(systolic pressure over 160) at the time of AD diagnosis showed a rate
of memory loss roughly 100 percent faster than those with normal blood
pressure.
In addition, 10 with atrial fibrillation at the
time of the diagnosis showed a rate of memory decline that was 75
percent faster than those with normal heartbeats.
The study participants were part of the Cache
County Study on Memory Health and Aging, which has been following a
group of 5,092 people 65 or older living in Cache County, Utah, since
1995.
“What makes this group and study unique is that we
have been following these participants in the community for over a
decade, even before they were first diagnosed with AD, so we know a good
deal about their medical history,” says Mielke.
“Studies that enroll AD patients only from clinics
may miss key factors, such as date of onset and history of
cardiovascular disease and treatment.”
Mielke says she is currently working on similar
studies using larger sample sizes to better understand the potential
role that vascular factors play before AD diagnosis and their role over
the course of the disease’s progression.
Mielke also recently contributed to a study by
Johns Hopkins psychiatrist Paul Rosenberg, M.D., that examined drugs
that modify high blood pressure and high cholesterol, such as
beta-blockers, diuretics, calcium-channel blockers and statins, and
their effects on cognitive and functional decline. Results from that
study are expected to be released this year.
Constantine Lyketsos, M.D., Paul Rosenberg, M.D.,
and Peter Rabins, M.D., M.P.H. of the Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
also contributed to this study. Additional researchers include JoAnn
Tschanz, Ph.D., Maria Norton, Ph.D., Ron Munger, Ph.D., Larry Cook, and
Chris Corcoran, Ph.D., of Utah State University in Logan, Utah; Kathleen
Hayden, Ph.D., and Kathleen Welsh-Bohmer, Ph.D., of Duke University in
Durham, N.C.; Robert Green, M.D., of Boston University; and John
Brietner, M.D., of the University of Washington in Seattle.
This study was supported by grants from the
National Institute on Aging.
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