Objective: We examined the efficacy of galantamine on the neuropsychological function in the patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) during 26-week clinical trial.
Design: This was a prospective 26-week, single-blind clinical trial.
Materials and Methods: Twenty patients who met the criteria of probable AD according to NINCDS-ADRDA were recruited in this study. The subjects achieved a score range of 10 to 24 on the Mini-Mental Status Examination. We measured the neuropsychological change of the subjects who were administered with galantamine of 16-24mg/day by using Korean version of Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive section (ADAS-cog) and frontal lobe tests (trail making, digit span, word fluency, concentration/distractibility). ADAS-cog and frontal lobe tests were conducted before the treatment and at weeks 4, 13, 26. ADAS-cog score of each patient was analyzed by three domains of neuropsychological function (i.e., memory, language and praxis). Korean version of Neuropsychological Inventory (NPI) was also conducted to measure behavioral and psychological symptoms of demented patients.
Results: The patients administered with galantamine showed a significant improvement in praxis (4.20+3.53 vs. 2.75+2.75, p=0.01), and a trend of improvement in language (6.60+3.49 vs. 5.55+2.80, p=0.09) at week 13 compared with baseline. Patients showed no significant change in memory and frontal lobe function at week 13. A trend of improvement in language was continued with galantamine administration till week 26. Otherwise, there was no significant change of neuropsychological function and behavioral symptoms at week 4 and week 26, compared to those at baseline. And we did not find any correlationship between the change of cognitive function and that of behavioral symptom in these demented patients.
Conclusion: The patients with Alzheimer's disease demonstrated better improvement in praxis and language domain compared to other domains of cognitive function during 26-week galantamine trial. Further data will be collected and presented.
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