October 27, 2015

drug may delay need for Alzheimer’s patients to enter nursing homes

Treatments that can modify the disease course of Alzheimer’s may sadly be several years away, so researchers are looking for current therapies that may have an impact. Secondary analysis of the DOMINO trial (announced in 2012) suggests an off-patent drug may be able to delay the need for Alzheimer’s patients to enter nursing homes. This research is published in The Lancet Neurology.

This briefing at the SMC discussed issues such as:

• How robust is this study? Why do these results differ from previous findings?
• Just how big an impact do these drugs have? How much of a delay in symptoms do they induce?
• How does this treatment compare to other existing treatments?
• What now? Should this drug be given to all patients? Do we know the impact of giving it to people at differing stages of disease?
• What does this tell us, if anything, about the possibility of other treatments?

Roundup comments accompanied this briefing.

Speakers:

Prof. Robert Howard, Professor of Old Age Psychiatry, University College London

Dr Patrick Philips, Senior Statistician, MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London