Abstract
Dementia care represents a significant burden to our society. Although we are still far from any cure for dementia, there are several medications available for symptomatic management of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. These agents not only improve the cognitive and behavioural symptoms of dementia but may also help maintain patients' functional independence and lessen caregiver stress. There are also a number of clinical trials currently in place to investigate new agents for treatment of Alzheimer's disease. This article reviews the current medications available for Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, as well as a number of promising agents that are under investigation.

Introduction
Dementia is common and affects eight percent of the Canadian population over age 65.[1] Since it is a disease of older adults, the prevalence of dementia will increase as our population ages. Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and accounts for over 60% of all dementias.[2] There is still debate regarding the second and third most common form of dementia; some clinical and epidemiological studies have found that vascular dementia (VaD) and mixed vascular-AD is the second most common diagnosis, while some pathological series suggest that Lewy body pathology may be the second most frequent finding in dementia after the plaques and tangles of AD.[3-6] In any case, management of dementia places considerable burden on our health care system. Currently, a number of pharmacologic agents have demonstrated efficacy in managing the cognitive, behavioural, and functional deficits of dementia. These improvements help to preserve functional autonomy of the patients and may delay their institutionalization, in addition to relieving caregiver stress.

Alzheimer's Disease
Currently, two classes of drugs are approved by Health Canada for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors are represented by donepezil, galantamine, and rivastigmine, while the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor modulator class is represented by memantine.

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