Antihistamine Can Reverse Mental Deterioration
~ Zev Driller
An old antihistamine drug may come back on the market one day – to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Dimebond, once sold in Russia to treat allergies, may have the happy side affect of reversing cognitive decline. Test subjects taking Dimebond actually improved their scores on cognition tests, compared to both the control group and their own baseline scores. Alistair Burns, M.D., of the University of Manchester in England, and Robin Jacoby, D.M., of the University of Oxford in England, believe it attacks several mechanisms of dementia that could make it affective in treating mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.
Dimebond was only on the market temporarily, and in Russia. It was pulled when better, targeted antihistamines were introduced, making it superfluous. For that reason, it was never approved for use in the United States, and has not received much notice elsewhere.
