by Playfuls Staff |
24th March 2006
Scientific researchers have discovered that a drug used to treat Alzheimer's disease, a neurodegenerative affection clinically characterized by progressive deterioration of neural and other daily living activities, can actually improve the condition of patients suffering from a severe form of dementia. [more]
Generically known as donepezil, the drug is called Aricept and is marketed by Pfizer and Japan's Eisai Co. Ltd.
Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute claim that it can improve language, memory and understanding in patients with a severe form of dementia, Swedish researchers said on Thursday.
A test has been run on about 200 elderly patients and it seems that they showed improvements – they began to function better, do daily tasks and were less reliant on nursing care; their speech, memory and communication skills also improved.
"We got impressive results", affirmed Professor Bengt Winblad, who led the 6-month study. "We now have a drug that will improve the intellectual capacity of the elderly with severe Alzheimer's disease", he added.
However, a week ago, Eisai announced that 11 patients suffering from a different form of dementia had died while taking Aricept during a clinical trial. Patients in that study suffered from vascular dementia, which is caused by a stroke or diseased blood vessels and is the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's disease. Nearly 650 patients in the trial were given the drug. There were no deaths among the 326 people who received a placebo, according to
Reuters.
Even if the drug does considerably improve the condition of the patients suffering from Alzheimer's, Winblad insisted on the fact that the drug is not a cure for the illness.
