A new skin patch that treats the early signs of Alzheimer's disease will be subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

Designed to continuously release medication into the bloodstream, the patch is thought to deliver a ‘smoother' treatment and fewer side-effects than the pills currently used by Australia's 100,000 plus sufferers of the degenerative brain disorder.

"It's a positive development because it will increase the effectiveness of medication," says Glen Rees of Alzheimer's Australia. "Being able to do a bit more to improve the quality of life for sufferers is very important and can mean so much."

Professor Jurgen Gotz, Director of the Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease laboratory at Sydney's Brain and Mind Research Institute, agrees that slow release will improve treatment. "But we must remember this is only to treat the symptoms," he says. The holy grail - a drug that could slow or even stop disease progression - is at least three to fives years away. "That is the biggest goal, because it will dramatically change the whole landscape of the disease."

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