BMJ 2001;322:190 ( 27 January )

News

NICE approves drugs for Alzheimer's disease

Zosia Kmietowicz, London
The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Health authorities and trusts in England and Wales have been told to end the rationing of drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease and to make them available to all patients in whom they might slow the progression of the disease.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) last week issued guidance on the drugs donepezil (Aricept), rivastigmine (Exelon), and galantamine (Reminyl), saying that drug treatment should now form one component of care in people with mild to moderate symptoms.

Treatment with these drugs, which can improve memory and other functions, should be started only after specialist assessment, though once the treatment has been started, patients can be looked after under shared protocols with GPs.

An estimated 400000 people in England and Wales have Alzheimer's disease, and it is thought that up to 35000 of them could be eligible for drug treatment right away. As the benefit of treatment is thought to last three . . . [Full text of this article]
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