NEARLY half the people being given the Alzheimer drug Aricept in an informal trial in the Glasgow area have shown a significant response, the doctor in charge of the programme said yesterday.
The patients who have taken part in the evaluation were chosen according to strict diagnostic criteria, and the benefits are only temporary, said Dr Donald Lyons, a consultant with Greater Glasgow Community and Mental Health Trust.
However, his findings, presented at a major dementia conference, have raised hopes that expensive drugs such as Aricept - and a second drug of the same type launched last week - will become more widely available for Alzheimer patients.
Provision has been patchy across the UK because of doubts by health authorities about their cost and effectiveness. The price of Aricept to the NHS is #68 or #95 a month, depending on dosage.
The drug has been heavily advertised in the medical press and has attracted private prescriptions from those who can afford them.
So far, Greater Glasgow Health Board, which is funding the evaluation, has given approval for 40 patients to be given the drug, and more than 30 have been tried on it.
''It does a good deal for some and for others it does very little,'' said Dr Lyons. ''If there is no benefit after three months they are taken off.''
A few were taken off right away because of side effects, and slightly less than half showed significant improvement, he said.
The benefits, which are assessed at memory clinics and by the observations of carers, last for an average of about six months before the disease resumes its course. There is no evidence that it works in severe forms of the disease.
The conference, held in Glasgow by Alzheimer Scotland-Action on Dementia to mark the start of Dementia Awareness Week, also heard a plea for improved assessment of elderly drivers who might be suffering from dementia.
With nearly 2,000,000 of the UK's 32,000,000 driving licence-holders already more than 70 years of age, the problem was bound to grow with the increased elderly population, said Dr Neil Gillespie, a lecturer and senior registrar in ageing and health at Ninewells Hospital, in Dundee.
Studies in Scandinavia had shown that 30% to 40% of elderly drivers killed in road accidents had some degree of Alzheimer's.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article