Alzheimer's Drives US Psychotherapeutics

US sales of psychological therapeutic prescription drugs will increase from a level of $4.37 billion in 1994 to $9.34 billion by 2000, and advances in treatments for Alzheimer's disease will raise these products' share of the market from 4% to 19% over the period, says a new study from Frost & Sullivan. Antidepressants will also increase their share of the market, from 17% to 21% during the period, it says.

And a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association this month suggests that of the US men who reach their current life expectancy of 72 years, and the women who reach their expectancy of 79 years, 6% and 16% respectively will develop at least mild Alzheimer's disease.

The researchers, who conducted a two-year study of more than 3,600 people aged 65 and over in East Boston, Massachusetts, found that the incidence of Alzheimer's may be higher than originally thought. 0.6% of people in their sixties developed the condition each year, they found, rising to 1% annually in the early seventies to 2% in the late seventies, up to 8.4% for those aged 85 and over.