Men, women may require different treatments for Alzheimer's

by Kurtis Doering for News Talk 980 CJME:We know there is a link between depression and Alzheimer's disease but exactly how they are linked and what that means for treatment is still a mystery.Dr. Darrell Mousseau, associate professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Saskatchewan, has been working to change that. He gave an update to the public and his financial backers Wednesday night.“What we found is that there is a link between depression and Alzheimer’s but it seems to kind of fall along male and female lines,” Mousseau said.The finding means men and women may require different treatments.“If you are trying to design one drug that is going to treat all Alzheimer’s, but there are actually two different disease pathways, you are clearly going to be missing at least half of the population,” he said, adding there is still a lot of work to be done because they need to confirm the results with more brain samples.His research project is in its third year and has two years left to go. The $1-million project is funded by the Alzheimer’s Society and the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation.