How long do the cholinesterase medications actually help the Alzheimer s patient?
A. This is very hard to gauge. For six months to a year, a patient can maintain the modest benefits if the Alzheimer s drug is working. Most people I respect as scientists and clinicians are not persuaded that cholinesterase drugs delay cognitive decline or that they slow the destruction of brain tissue caused by Alzheimer s. I explain to my patients and their caregivers that a person who responds to the drug will experience an improvement in memory of about six to eight months. By this, I mean that if the Alzheimer s medication were started in June, it is hoped that the patient s cognition would revert to how it was the previous November. This would be an average improvement. Moreover, if a person does improve, they could maintain this improvement for six to eight months and sometimes longer.
