Study: Reminyl Better in Some Respects Than Aricept in Treating Alzheimer's

Reminyl® is better than Aricept in helping Alzheimer's disease patients think and reason more clearly and learn new information, while easing the burden on caregivers, according to study reported in the journal Drugs and Aging.

"This year-long study demonstrates once again that medication is effective in slowing the progression of symptoms in Alzheimer's disease," said study co-author Roger Bullock, Department of Old Age Psychiatry at Victoria Hospital in Swindon, United Kingdom.

However, he added that it is a "tragedy" that at least 70 percent of people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease are not being treated with medications approved to treat the disorder.

The study followed 182 patients with moderate to advanced Alzheimer's disease who took 24 milligrams of Reminyl (galantamine hydrobromide) or 10 milligrams of Aricept (donepezil hydrochloride) daily.

Reminyl was comparable to Aricept in maintaining the basic activities of daily living such as bathing and grooming. Patients' functional ability remained relatively constant for both treatment groups for nine months when a small decline was observed. Both drugs also affected abnormal behaviors such as paranoia and agitation to a similar degree.

However, patients taking Reminyl maintained levels of cognitive performance similar to those shown at the start of the study, while the Aricept group deteriorated significantly in this area. At 12 months, 55 percent of those receiving Reminyl had maintained or improved their cognitive performance, compared with only 33 percent of patients taking Aricept.

More than two-thirds of the caregivers of patients taking Reminyl reported the same or reduced caregiver burden, compared to about half of those caring for patients taking Aricept.

Both therapies were generally safe and well tolerated.

Other sources: Janssen Pharmaceutica Products, Drugs & Aging 2003 20:10 777-89