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这threat of dementia looms with age, with many people fearing memory loss and other physical and psychological side effects of the condition. No treatment currently exists, but as dementia now affects over 55 million people, with new cases increasing at an alarming rate—the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates an increase of 10 million cases annually—much research has been geared toward finding one. Developing dementia does not have to be inevitable though, and new data may even provide some comfort to those prescribed a specific medication. Read on to learn more about the treatment that could decrease your odds of developing this debilitating disease.

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Lithium is a mood stabilizer used to treat mania in patients with bipolar disorder, and while it is not approved by the Federal Drug Administration for treatment of depression, it is often prescribed "off-label," according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Findings recently published in 普罗斯医学found an association between lithium use and a decreased risk of developing dementia in people over the age of 50, after controlling for sociodemographic factors that could also affect diagnosis. Lithium has previously been suggested as a treatment for dementia, but there has been limited population-level research to support its potential, the study authors noted.

根据发现杂志, the drug was actually the first treatment used for mental illness, having been discovered in the 1940s by John F. J. Cade. When the psychiatrist injected 10 bipolar patients with lithium, all of them improved. Now, the drug is used as the first-line treatment for bipolar disorder in the U.S., but its use is accompanied by several side effects such as headache, nausea, and changes in mood and appetite, as well as rarer complications such as lithium toxicity.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge in the U.K. obtained electronic clinical records obtained from secondary mental health services in Cambridge and Peterborough National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust. A total of 548 patients who had been prescribed lithium and 29,070 patients who had not been prescribed the drug were included in the analyses. All patients were over the age of 50 and had an average age of 73.9 years.

Of those taking lithium over a mean period of 4.8 years, investigators found that 9.7 percent were diagnosed with dementia during this period—6.7 percent with 阿尔茨海默氏病, the most common form of dementia, and 2.6 percent with vascular dementia, another major form. Those who were not taking lithium, in comparison, had a higher risk of developing dementia。 Over a period of 4.3 years, 11.2 percent of these patients developed the condition, 8.1 percent of whom were diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, and 2.6 percent of whom were diagnosed with vascular dementia.

Interestingly, results were more pronounced in patients who had been taking lithium for less than one year or more than five, when compared with patients who had exposure somewhere in the middle (between one and five years). Researchers did note the relatively small number of patients using lithium, which limits study results. In addition, 73 percent of study participants who had been exposed to lithium had mania/bipolar disorder. While their results "were in the opposite direction," the condition has previously been cited as a significant risk factor for dementia diagnosis.

Lithium could have potential in other neurological conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and stroke. But for Alzheimer's disease specifically, lithium blocks a certain protein that is directly involved with the formation of abnormalities in a patient's brain.

"There's an enzyme called glycogen synthase kinase, or GSK3, which is involved in the abnormal phosphorylation of tau protein, which makes tangles in Alzheimer's disease," Rob Howard, professor of Old Age Psychiatry at University College London, explained to Medical News Today. “和lithium is a potent inhibitor of that enzyme…This isn't the first study to have shown the link between lithium use and reduced potential risk."ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb

根据发现杂志，一些认为锂可能与预防测量更有益，而不是提高现有患者的认知能力。

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研究表明，截至目前，由于研究探讨了痴呆症风险减少的潜力，只需通过开始高纤维餐 或者更多前往桑拿浴室。虽然不是每个人都是规定的锂 - 因为它是一种明确使用的严重药物，但目前的发现并不宽大，这些结果确实对痴呆症研究的较大领域具有一些承诺。

“[o]总体而言，当我看了看本文时，我对此非常感兴趣，因为我们总是看着新的方式来了解和潜在地治疗，缓慢和预防痴呆症，”Christopher Weber.，Alzheimer协会全球科学倡议博士告诉医疗新闻。 “这只是一个科学家正在寻找的另一个大道......减少痴呆症风险。”

据研究人员称，新发现表明，锂可能具有疾病改性痴呆症的潜力，但需要在进一步的临床试验中评估假设。

有关的：如果你不记得这4件事，它可能是一个早期的阿尔茨海默氏症。