Nice Recommendations For Alzheimer's Disease Drugs

EDM number 947 in 2010-12, proposed by Jim Dobbin on 02/11/2010.
Categorised under the topics of Diseases, Health services and Medicine.

That this House notes that dementia is a devastating illness which affects over 800,000 people in the UK, two-thirds of them suffering from Alzheimer's disease and with only about a tenth receiving drug treatment; understands that for patients suffering in all stages of the disease some drug treatments can help to alleviate symptoms but that currently there are no National Institutefor Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommended treatment options for mild or severe forms of the disease; believes that the current NICE technology appraisal of Alzheimer's diseease will allow drugs, which can improve the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, to be more widely available; congratulates NICE on its recently published draft guidance on Alzheimer's disease, which recommends the use of donepezil, galantamine and rivastigmine for Alzheimer's patients suffering from a mild and moderate form of the disease as well as recommending memantine for use in patients suffering from severe Alzheimer's and some moderate Alzheimer's patients; welcomes that there will now be NICE recommended treatment options for patients suffering at all stages of Alzheimer's disease, which will help to alleviate the terrible symptoms for thousands of patients; further notes that NICE has recognised the benefits that memantine can have on patients suffering from behavioural symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, including aggression and agitation; further welcomes the contribution this could have towards reducing the prescriptions of anti-psychotic, chemical cosh, drugs; and looks forward to the current draft recommendations being finalised unchanged at the end of the consultation period.

This motion has been signed by a total of 37 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.