ARICEPT

Cholinesterase inhibitors and cardiac arrhythmias

Do they do much anyway??

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A recent systematic review of all published “gold standard” clinical trials of the Alzheimer’s disease drugs donepezil (ARICEPT), rivastigmine (EXELON), and galantamine (REMINYL—now RAZADYNE) concludes that the scientific basis for recommending the use of these drugs is “questionable.” The review was published in the August 6, 2005 issue of the British Medical Journal and the authors were from the University of Hamburg-Eppendorf in Germany

A statistical summary of clinical trials, known as a meta-analysis, of donepezil conducted by the prestigious Cochrane Collaboration in 2003 found that in selected patients with mild or moderate Alzheimer’s disease treated for periods of 12, 24, or 52 weeks: “Donepezil produced modest improvements in cognitive function and study clinicians rated global clinical state more positively in treated patients. No improvements were present on patient self-assessed quality of life and data on many important outcomes are not available. The practical importance of these changes to patients and carers [care givers] is unclear.”