Reminyl® May Free Up Time for Caregivers of Alzheimer Patients

Giving the drug Reminyl® (galantamine) to patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease may free up some time for their caregivers.

As reported in the October issue of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, patients treated with Reminyl can be unsupervised for more time per day compared to those taking a placebo.

"Galantamine has been shown to have positive effects on cognition, function, global response and behavior in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease," said study co-author Mary Sano, of the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. "The results of this study show that the drug is also associated with benefits to the caregiver."

The study analyzed data from two large trials involving 825 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. Caregivers recorded the amount of time they spent assisting their patients with daily living activities.

Caregivers of patients in the Reminyl-treated group spent an average of 32 minutes less per day assisting with their patients' activities of daily living. The effect was more pronounced among caregivers of patients with moderate-stage disease being treated with Reminyl, who spent nearly 53 minutes less each day assisting with daily living activities.

Researchers also found that patients in the Reminyl treatment group could spend more time unsupervised than those in the group taking a placebo. Overall, Reminyl patients could be unsupervised for 27 minutes more per day or slightly more than three hours per week than those taking a placebo.

The caregivers of patients treated with Reminyl were almost twice as likely to report an increase in the amount of time that patients could be left unsupervised compared with caregivers of patients taking a placebo.

"Caregiver burden is one of the main considerations when deciding whether or not to move a family member with Alzheimer's disease into a nursing home," said Sano. "Results of this study show that treatment with galantamine may help reduce that burden."

Reminyl is used to treat patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's
disease. The most frequent adverse events are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia and weight loss. They are usually mild and temporary.

Other sources: Janssen Pharmaceutical Products