Tacrine efficacy in Lewy body dementia

✍ Scribed by Florence Lebert; Florence Pasquier; Lydie Souliez; Henri Petit

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 83 KB
• Volume: 13
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1166(199808)13:8<516::aid-gps810>3.0.co;2-o

✦ Synopsis

Background. Response to tacrine varies among patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Lewy body dementia (LBD) could be a high responder subtype of AD. The aim of the study was to compare the eects of tacrine in LBD and AD.

Methods. Seventy-®ve consecutive outpatients with mild or moderate AD were screened. Tacrine was given at a dose of 40 mg/day during 6 weeks. During the next 6 weeks, the patients were treated with 80 mg/day and afterwards with 120 mg/day. Patients were assessed at baseline and treated with a dose of 120 mg/day tacrine for 2 weeks.

Results. Analysis was performed on 39 patients (AD, N 20; LBD, N 19). Eight patients were lost to follow-up, eight patients manifested with side-eects, six suered from an intercurrent somatic disease during the study and 14 patients had poor compliance or were treated with incompatible drugs. Twenty-two patients (11 AD/11 LBD) increased their cognitive performances with tacrine. Among the 22 patients, the improvement diered between the AD and the LBD groups. In AD, conceptualization improved; in LBD, the improvements occurred in verbal initiation and digit span.

Conclusion. This study emphasizes the importance of using appropriate tests to determine the positive eects of pharmacological treatments.