Prostate medications might help reduce the risk of a specific type of dementia, according to new research.
People were less likely to develop Lewy body dementia when taking drugs designed to treat urinary symptoms caused by an enlarged prostate, researchers reported on June 19 in the journal Neurology.
Researcher Jacob Simmering, an assistant professor of internal medicine with the University of Iowa, stated: “These results are exciting, because right now there are no drugs to prevent or treat dementia with Lewy bodies, which is the second most common neurodegenerative type of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.”
Simmering added in a journal news release: “If we can determine that an existing drug can offer protection against this debilitating disease, that has the potential to greatly reduce its effects.”
Understanding Lewy Body Dementia
Lewy body dementia affects more than 1 million people in the United States, according to the National Institute on Aging (NIA). It’s caused by the protein alpha-synuclein, which forms abnormal deposits called Lewy bodies that affect brain chemicals.
This form of dementia can cause thinking and memory issues, movement problems, and even visual hallucinations, the NIA notes. More than 80% of people with Lewy body dementia experience hallucinations.
The Drugs Studied
For this study, researchers focused on three medications—terazosin, doxazosin, and alfuzosin—which help men urinate more easily despite an enlarged prostate. These drugs work by relaxing muscles in the prostate and bladder.
However, the three medications also activate an enzyme important for energy production in brain cells, and previous studies have shown a link between these drugs and Parkinson’s disease, researchers said.
Since Lewy body dementia is similar to Parkinson’s, researchers decided to investigate whether the drugs might help these patients as well.
Study Design and Results
Researchers analyzed data on more than 126,000 men taking one of the three drugs and compared them against more than 517,000 men taking two other types of prostate medication that don’t activate that enzyme.
Results showed that men taking one of the three drugs were approximately 40% less likely to develop Lewy body dementia than those taking the two other medications.
Simmering noted: “More research is needed to follow people over time and determine whether there is a cause-and-effect relationship here, but it is promising to think that these drugs could have a protective effect on this disease that will likely affect a larger number of people as the population ages.”
Study Limitations
Researchers cautioned that since only men were included in the study, the results might not apply to women. Lewy body dementia appears to affect slightly more men than women, the NIA notes.
Additionally, Lewy body dementia can be difficult to diagnose, so it’s possible the researchers didn’t identify everyone who’d developed the brain disease.
This research offers hope that existing medications could potentially be repurposed to protect against a devastating form of dementia, though further studies are needed to confirm a causal relationship and determine whether similar benefits extend to women.