RESEARCHERS from the North-East have shown there may be a better way of treating a common form of dementia.

A study led by Professor Ian McKeith and colleagues, from Newcastle University, has shown that the drug rivastigmine may help to reduce significantly the distressing symptoms of dementia.

Until the study was published in the latest Lancet magazine, it was thought the drug would only help patients with Alzheimer's disease.

But after studying 120 patients suffering from a condition called dementia with lewy bodies (DLB), which affects up to one in four dementia patients, researchers in the UK, Spain and Italy also saw improvements in those patients who were taking the drug.

A spokesman for the Newcastle University team said patients given rivastigmine were "significantly less apathetic and anxious, and had fewer delusions and hallucinations", compared to those who did not take the drug.

Nearly twice as many patients who were taking the drug showed an improvement in their symptoms compared to other patients.

Patients were given up to 12mg of the drug every day for 20 weeks, followed by a three-week drug withdrawal period.

Assessments of psychiatric and behavioural symptoms were made at regular intervals, when the team used a battery of different tests to check the progress of patients.

Professor McKeith, of the university's Institute for the Health of the Elderly, at Newcastle General Hospital, said the study showed that rivastigmine "can safely offer improvements in behavioural and cognitive symptoms" in patients with this form of dementia.

Reviewing the study, Jeffrey Cummings, from the UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles, said rivastigmine looked like a step forward, compared to other drugs, which sometimes made patients worse.