Americans will see the beginning of "cocktail drug therapy" for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease in 2004, say Drs. Lou Burgio and Lucinda Roff, co-directors of The University of Alabama's Center for Mental Health and Aging. The professors liken the new treatment to current drug combinations used to treat HIV.

"With the availability in January 2004 of Namenda, a new cognitive enhancer that protects a different part of the brain than currently available enhancers such as Aricept, research suggests that combining these two types of drugs might be better in improving or at least slowing the decline in memory," said Burgio.

"A number of other drugs are in the research pipeline that protect other parts of the brain. As these drugs are added to the 'cocktail,' it is predicted that cognitive decline can be slowed even further," he added.

The professors also expect advances in the development of a vaccine that has good potential to prevent Alzheimer's disease.

"There is research being done with a vaccine that prevents Alzheimer's disease by providing antibodies to A-beta, a substance that clogs patients' brains," said Roff.

"An earlier trial was stopped two years ago due to complications, but the trial was resumed this fall with a safer vaccine. We are still some years away from having a readily available vaccine to prevent this dreaded disease, but there is comfort in knowing that progress is being made."

Roff also said that with the increase in the elderly population, taxpayers will have to agree to tax increases.

"We will increase our tax base, equitably, in Alabama; not because we like taxes, but because, in their hearts, Alabamians are a fair and just people, because enough of us will have had personal experiences with elderly loved ones in need, and because we will have no other choice but to do so or stand by and watch our elders and their families suffer," she said.

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