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Non-Pharmacological Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders

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Dementias

Abstract

Notwithstanding the fact that multidisciplinary effort has quickly transformed the area of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related disorders, leading to better understanding of the clinical presentation, risk factors, and treatment, definitive knowledge of the pathogenetic mechanisms is still lacking, thus heavily influencing pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. The new drugs recently placed on the market, as well as those in the advanced stage of pharmacological trials, constitute significant progress, but mainly in the area of the old cholinergic hypothesis, where only partial efficacy can be expected. Non-pharmacological approaches could therefore be of paramount importance. Even if effective pharmacological treatment could be readily available in the short term, non-pharmacological interventions [1] are necessary in order to face the various clinical aspects — cognitive, functional, behavioral and affective — of AD and related disorders. The present review will deal mainly with AD, but also includes other types of dementia.

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Zanetti, O., Trabucchi, M. (1999). Non-Pharmacological Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders. In: Govoni, S., Bolis, C.L., Trabucchi, M. (eds) Dementias. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2149-5_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-2149-5_12

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