OBJECTIVE: To investigate the etiological factors of Alzheimer disease (AD) and the advance in drug treatment. DATA SOURCES: Using the terms "Alzheimer disease, etiology, drug treatment", we searched Medline database for AD treatment-related English literatures which were published between January 1993 and September 2006. Other literatures were obtained by searching concrete magazines and papers by hand. STUDY SELECTION: The data were selected primarily. Epidemiologic study and randomized controlled clinical trials were selected, and those studies with repetitive or similar contents were excluded. DATA EXTRACTION: Totally 1 537 AD and its treatment-related literatures were collected, and 32 of them were involved. Altogether 1 505 non-randomized controlled clinical trials, repetitive studies and reviews were excluded. DATA SYNTHESIS: The restriction of curative effect is a progressive neural degenerative disease. Although the etiological hypothesis of this disease has been introduced, the etiological factors of this disease are still unclear. The current treatments mainly involve: preventing against Aβ formation and clearing Aβ, application of antioxidant and free radical scavengers, application of anti-inflammatory preparation, application of cholinergic preparation, hormonal therapy, application of metabolic enhancer, application of neurotrophic factor and nerve protectant, gene therapy and so on. CONCLUSION: The etiological factors of AD are still unclear, and symptomatic treatment is much taken in clinical therapy. Therefore, the curative effects of AD are still not very ideal.
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