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Hospitals make massive strides in treatment of Alzheimer’s

From left, neurology specialists Dr. Nikita Urval and Dr. Mary E. Kovacik Eicher are in a room where Alzheimer’s patients are assessed at a Butler Memorial Hospital outpatient facility in Butler on Wednesday, Aug. 28. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

It wasn’t long ago when a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease was not too far from a death sentence.

While treatments have existed for years, they could manage only the individual symptoms caused by Alzheimer’s and could do nothing to stop or reverse the progressive neurological damage the disease causes to the brain.

That has changed recently after the Food and Drug Administration gave its approval to two new medications, lecanemab in July 2023 and donanemab in July 2024, which are intended to treat what is believed to be the underlying cause of Alzheimer’s — the buildup of amyloid proteins within the brain.

As a result, Independence Health System — which includes Butler Memorial Hospital — has implemented an Alzheimer’s treatment program that includes infusions of one of these new wonder drugs.

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