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Long-term caffeine worsens symptoms associated with Alzheimer’s disease

It is well known that memory problems are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. Coffee or caffeine has recently been suggested as a strategy to prevent dementia, both in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and in normal ageing processes, due to its action in blocking molecules – adenosine receptors – which may cause dysfunctions and diseases in old age. However, there is some evidence that once the cognitive but also the NPS symptoms are developed, caffeine may exert opposite effects. “The mice develop Alzheimer’s disease in a very close manner to the human patients with early-onset form of the disease. The results indicate that caffeine alters the behaviour of healthy mice and worsens the neuropsychiatric symptoms of mice with Alzheimer’s disease. “Our observations of adverse caffeine effects in an Alzheimer´s disease model together with previous clinical observations suggest that an exacerbation of BPSD-like symptoms may partly interfere with the beneficial cognitive effects of caffeine.
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