Prevalence of Dementia amongst Elderly Japanese with Leprosy: Apparent Effect of Chronic Drug Therapy

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Abstract
The overall prevalence of dementia in 1,410 Japanese leprosy patients 65 years or over continuously treated with dapsone or closely related drugs was 2.9%. This compares with 4.83% of 621 cases treated intermittently and 6.25 % of 1,761 cases untreated for at least 5 years. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed a highly significant increase of dementia with age (p = 0.0001) and, after age adjustment, a significant reduction of dementia in drug-treated compared with drug-free patients (p = 0.017). Such treatment had no significant effect on the prevalence of strokes. These data suggest that dapsone and closely related drugs may have potential use as antidementia agents.

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