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A widely prescribed drug to tackle high blood pressure and heart disease also appears to reduce the risk of Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, according to a US study.

The original article can be found at: http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/lifestyle/a/-/health/6672979/blood-pressure-drug-combats-dementia/

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One of the problems with this article is knowing what the halving of risk of admission to a nursing home translates into in terms of an absolute reduction in risk. To be fair, the authors of the scientific paper have not provided details in the published abstract and indeed it is very difficult to dig it out of the full text of the article. The other main criticism is that not enough attention is paid to the fact that the study is not a randomised controlled trial. This is an observational study, meaning that there may be differences between patients receiving the different medications that account for the different rates of dementia, which account for the differences observed. A study like this provides little information on adverse effects of the drugs and costs were not mentioned. The author includes independent commentary, which helps put the results in context.

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