The drugs that could cause dementia in men

For decades, cancer was the diagnosis everyone feared most. Now, it’s dementia, and with good reason. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, dementia is on the rise in every state in the U.S.

With one in ten people already suffering from Alzheimer’s the statistics are already frightening.

But, it might shock you to find out that if the problem wasn’t bad enough already, the drug companies have made it worse, at least for men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

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Androgen-deprivation therapy and Alzheimer’s

You see, when a man is diagnosed with prostate cancer, especially if they’ve been diagnosed with an advanced stage of the cancer or the cancer has recurred, they are almost always put on androgen-deprivation therapy.

These are drugs that block testosterone.

Why?

Because testosterone can fuel prostate tumor growth.

Unfortunately, these drugs also come with a host of side effects from obesity and bone loss to heart problems and impotence.

And, unfortunately, we can now add dementia and Alzheimer’s to the list.

The research

What’s scary is that no one knew that Alzheimer’s and dementia could be side effects of these drugs until recently when researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston put it all together.

They combed through the data on more than 100,400 men diagnosed with prostate cancer over a 17-year period.

Here’s what they found:

• Androgen-deprivation therapy increased the risk of dementia by 17 percent
• For Alzheimer’s, the numbers were worse with a whopping 23 percent elevated risk

They also discovered that men on androgen-deprivation drugs also had a 10 percent higher risk of seeking psychiatric care.

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Time matters

And, that’s not the end of the bad news…

According to the researchers, the longer men are on the drugs, the higher their risks of all of the above.

After six months of the therapy, men’s risk of dementia goes from 17 percent to 23 percent and their risk of Alzheimer’s goes up an additional 15 percent. Their chance of requiring mental health services also rises.

And, the risks just keep going up as time passes.

With these new findings, Dr. Karl Tully, a research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, says, “Physicians should be telling their patients about that risk and should probably perform regular screening.”

Stuck between a rock and a hard place

The researchers do say that although the study has now proven that dementia, Alzheimer’s and androgen-deprivation therapy are linked, they haven’t yet proven that the drugs are the cause and that other factors like health conditions may have played a part.

Still, men taking the drugs should be wary and talk to their doctor about their options in order to weigh their risks.

The biggest concern comes in the fact that many patients might not have a choice when it comes to treatment and are stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place — choosing between a life-threatening disease and losing their memory and possibly their independence. That’s not a decision anyone should be forced to make.

Sources:

1. Alzheimer’s Is Accelerating Across the U.S. — AARP
2. Does hormone therapy for prostate cancer raise dementia risk? — Medical Xpress