Social Care News

Alzheimer’s sufferers in the advanced stages of the disease could benefit from drug treatment, according to a new study published this week.

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that drugs used to slow the disease in its early stages also work when the condition is advanced, greatly extending the population who could be treated. Advanced Alzheimer’s is marked by the progressive loss of cognitive skills and physical control and leaves individuals stripped of their dignity and personality.

The finding could double the number of patients currently on treatment from 50,000 to over 100,000 in the UK and extend treatment to millions more worldwide. Only one in five of the 500,000 patients with Alzheimer’s in the UK, a third of whom have advanced disease, are currently receiving drug treatment because of a shortage of clinics to diagnose them.

Professor Robert Howard of the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London, who led the study, said: “For the first time we have robust and compelling evidence that treatment with these drugs can continue to help patients at the later, more severe stages of the disease.

“Patients were better able to remember, understand, communicate and perform daily tasks for at least a year longer than those who stopped taking the drugs.”

The National Institute for Clinical Health and Excellence (NICE) came under fire when it initially refused to approve donepezil – brand name Aricept – and associated drugs on the grounds that they were not cost-effective. It said the drugs worked in only 40 per cent of cases but later it reviewed its decision and recommended the drugs in the early and moderate stages of the disease – but not in the late stages. Although its current advice says the drugs should only be withdrawn when doctors consider they are no longer of benefit, the latest findings mean its position may now have to be reviewed.

Researchers led by Professor Howard studied 295 patients with severe Alzheimer’s over a year and found continued use of donepezil slowed the deterioration characteristic of the disease by one third, equivalent to four months of improved quality of life. Those who took a second drug, memantine, in combination, did even better.

Professor Clive Ballard, director of research at the Alzheimer’s Society, which funded the study with the Medical Research Council, said the drug was not a cure but significantly relieved the symptoms: “If I had Alzheimer’s disease or my relative did I would want them to have [the combination].”

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