BMJ  2005;330:857-858 (16 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7496.857

Editorial

Drugs for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Clear rules about stopping treatment in individual patients are needed

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The article by Ballard et al in this issue (p 874) offers an opportunity to discuss the role of drugs in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.¹ This investigator driven randomised clinical trial has tested the hypothesis that the atypical neuroleptic quetiapine and the cholinesterase inhibitor rivastigmine would be better than placebo for treating agitation in institutionalised patients in severe stages of Alzheimer's disease. Using measures of agitation (the Cohen-Mansfield agitation inventory) and cognition (the severe impairment battery) appropriate for this stage of dementia, the authors showed that agitation improved equally in the three arms of the trial but a measurable decline in cognition occurred in patients taking quetiapine. They conclude that these two drugs seemed of no benefit in patients with dementia and agitation in institutional care, and that quetiapine should not be used as alternative treatment to risperidone or olanzapine in people with dementia.

. . . [Full text of this article]

McGill Center for Studies in Aging, 6825 LaSalle Blvd, Verdun (Montréal), Québec, Canada H4H 1R3 (Serge.gauthier@mcgill.ca)

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