Dementia treatment is more than just medication. It can include lifestyle changes, multimodal therapy, and environmental management, as well.
Your dementia treatment plan will depend on underlying causes and how advanced your condition is. Not everyone needs significant lifestyle changes or medication, particularly in early stage dementia when symptoms aren’t causing a major impact on daily life.
As dementia progresses and more personal care assistance is needed, treatments focus on improving quality of life, reducing symptom severity, and slowing disease progression, if possible.
There’s currently no cure for dementia, but treatment can help ease symptoms and improve overall quality of life. In some cases, it can also slow the disease’s progression.
Types of dementia
Dementia has several causes, and each of them will affect the type of treatment plan needed. Some of the most common types of dementia include:
Approximately 90% of dementia cases can be attributed to Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.
Although each case of dementia may have a different underlying cause, the medications used in treatment often overlap.
Currently, three medications have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help slow the biological changes associated with certain types of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease:
These medications are called anti-amyloid treatments. They work by removing beta-amyloid, a protein that can build up in your brain and contribute to neuron loss.
Other medications are there to help manage the severity of your symptoms.
Some of the most commonly used drugs in dementia are cholinesterase inhibitors, which prevent the breakdown of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in learning and memory.
Common cholinesterase inhibitors include:
- glantamine (Razadyne)
- donepezil (Aricept)
- rivastigmine (Exelon)
You may also be prescribed medications that help regulate other types of neurotransmitters, such as glutamate regulators (memantine) or an orexin receptor antagonist (suvorexant).
These prescriptions can help symptoms affecting memory, attention, reasoning, and sleep-wake cycles by improving neural communication in your brain.
After careful consideration of your treatment plan, your care team might also add:
However, the risks often outweigh the benefits of these medications.
Complementary treatments
Complementary medical treatments such as massage, acupuncture, yoga, and therapeutic touch won’t cure dementia. However, they may be beneficial for managing any discomfort that happens with cognitive decline.
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Dementia isn’t just about changes to memory and thinking. As neuron loss occurs, other symptoms can occur, including depression, anxiety, agitation, and psychosis.
These are known as behavioral disturbances.
Many of the medications traditionally used to treat these symptoms in other scenarios can make dementia worse. For this reason, nonmedication management is preferred when possible.
Therapeutic treatment for dementia can include:
Psychotherapy in dementia is considered impactful during the early stages of the condition before communication and comprehension decline significantly.
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Therapy can also help you develop useful skills for daily task management as your functionality changes. Common therapy options include:
- physical and occupational therapy
- problem adaptation therapy
- speech therapy
Lifestyle changes can be a big part of nonmedication dementia treatment.
Certain forms of dementia, such as vascular dementia, may be a part of the progression of health conditions like diabetes or heart disease. Talk with a doctor about ways to:
What diet is best for dementia?
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The MIND diet has also been shown to help reduce high blood pressure, which can contribute to dementia. It stands for Mediterranean–DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay.
This diet is a hybrid of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet.
Getting involved in clinical trials
If you’re living with dementia, participating in a clinical trial may offer you the opportunity to try the latest treatment advances while paving the way for others also living with this condition.
You can access dementia clinical trial openings by visiting:
- Alzheimer’s Association TrialMatch
- Alzheimer’s.gov’s Clinical Trials Finder
Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers - ClinicalTrials.gov
You can learn more about what it means to participate in a clinical trial by visiting the
Most dementia behaviors aren’t calculated, malicious misdeeds. They usually stem from overstimulation, confusion, pain, fear, frustration, or stress.
If you’re providing for someone experiencing cognitive impairment, how you manage their environment can have a big impact.
As a caregiver, you can help improve behavioral symptoms of dementia by:
- using calm, reassuring language
- asking permission to assist your loved one
- involving them in relaxing activities like listening to music
- limiting noise and distractions in their environment
- simplifying tasks
- providing memory cues, like labels
- adding lighting to reduce confusion
- providing plenty of rest opportunities between activities
- monitoring personal comfort
- offering limited, guided choices
Make sure you’re also looking after your own mental health. A therapist can help you develop useful communication strategies and healthy coping mechanisms for your emotions around being a caregiver.
Dementia treatment isn’t just taking pills every day. It often involves a collaborative approach with specialists, caregivers, and support networks.
There’s currently no cure for dementia, but it’s possible through nonmedication approaches to learn new ways to adapt to the everyday challenges of living with this condition.
Symptoms of some forms of dementia can improve with lifestyle changes such as quitting smoking, diet changes, and exercise.