A study being released today shows that 99.6% of drugs developed to Alzheimers don't work. An analysis of drugs developed between 2002-2012 showed that only one drug showed effectiveness, and 244 failed. The analysis of the studies was done at the Lou Ruvo Brain Center, part of the Cleveland Clinic. While researchers keep working on pharmaceutical treatments the lead author, Dr Jeffrey Cummings, stressed that it is important for people to make lifestyle changes and receive treatment for chronic diseases like diabetes.
Did they slow the disease down or increase his life span? I'd have no way to judge that.
daisychains, I am sorry for your negative experiences. And if you've tried a drug and it isn't helping you should certainly be able to discontinue it.
I'll repeat that this study was not saying that approved drugs don't work. It was only focused on the drugs being researched.
Example; Mom has been on the Excelon patch for 5 years. Without this patch would she have progressed a lot faster?
"Most drugs entering the AD drug-development pipeline have failed; only one agent has been approved since 2004 (memantine). The failure rate since 2002 (excluding agents currently in Phase 3) is 99.6%"
This quantifies what we already know: developing drugs for dementia is very, very tough. Most trials fail and never make it to market.
In the authors' opinion there is not enough research being done considering the magnitude of the problem.
This is quite different than saying current drugs don't work. This article does not include any consideration of currently approved drugs at all.
Also, one drug developed for Alzheimer's is far more effective for patients with Lewy Body.
Thanks for bringing this up -- though it is not exactly good news, is it?