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Alzheimer's disease has major social and family consequences. However, therapeutic strategies are still limited. Non-pharmacological therapeutic approaches are known to be useful to protect the intellectual abilities of the patients, or at least, to slow down their decline. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the consequences of sensory impairment in these old patients. Indeed, sensory troubles, mainly concerning hearing, may have an impact on the cognitive and behavioral symptoms. Several studies showed that the management of hearing impairment could afford cognitive and behavioral benefits in demented subjects as well as for the non-demented people. These results are encouraging, and suggest that hearing management should be applied to all hearing impaired patients with Alzheimer's disease.

In a double-blind parallel study, 20 elderly hypertensive subjects (mean age 85 years) were treated either by nicardipine or by nifedipine in slow-release form for 7 days. Blood pressure was measured by ambulatory, non-invasive daytime monitoring. Efficacy of both drugs was similar on the seventh day of treatment. However, the hypotensive effect induced by nifedipine was maximal on the first day of treatment, in contrast to the progressive effect induced by nicardipine. In 2 cases, marked hypotension was observed after the first tablet of nifedipine.