Role of Anti-dementia Medication

The use anti-dementia drugs (donepezil, rivastigmine, galantamine and memantine) has now become the gold standard for the treatment of dementia in Alzheimer’s disease in the general population. In the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) there has been a greater degree of hesitance to prescribe these drugs, particularly as there is limited evidence to suggest that they have a positive effect on the dementia process for persons with Down syndrome who develop dementia in Alzheimer’s disease. This primarily may often be due to the small size of the sample studied. This chapter reviews present research and clinical evidence on the role of anti-dementia drugs in IDD, along with highlighting potential failings.