Study results published last week in JAMA Ophthalmology reveal that AChEI inhibitors that are used to treat Alzheimer's disease may have an added benefit of lowering the risk for developing age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Researchers examined 12,487 VA patients with Alzheimer's diagnoses who were taking AChEIs and 4,898 people who were taking memantine, which is a different drug for dementia. These two groups were then compared to a control group of 8,486 people who were not on any drug for dementia. The average age of the patients was 72 with ages ranging between 55 and 80.
The results showed that the cases of age-related macular degeneration were 4% lower in patients who took AChEIs compared to the controls. Patients had a 25 year follow up and during that span, age-related macular degeneration developed in 299 people in the AChEI group while 373 people in the control group developed AMD.
While these results do offer some hope for a potential AMD treatment, researchers caution that randomized clinical trials would need to be conducted to determine if the medicine really does lessen the risk of developing AMD.
