New Alzheimer's pill more likely to cause misery, medical experts say

[Meg]

Alzheimer's drug Aricept 23 slammed by medical experts - latimes.com

Aricept 23 mg, found to be ineffective and cause stomach upset, was devised to serve commercial aims and was approved despite a poor showing in company-sponsored tests, two medical investigators say.

The drug, Aricept 23 mg, is no more effective on the whole than the disappointing ones already on the market — but is more likely to cause gastrointestinal problems, wrote Drs. Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical College in an article published Thursday in the medical journal BMJ.

The new formulation was devised to serve commercial objectives, they say, and was approved despite a poor showing in company-sponsored tests.

Woloshin and Schwartz described Aricept 23's march to market in 2010 as "perplexing" and "depressing" and wrote that "there is no excuse for manipulating vulnerable patients, desperate family members and their doctors to use a product that is most likely to cause net harm."

Be careful, very careful, about letting these clowns pawn off just anything on vulnerable family members...

[WKUHilltopper]

Be careful, very careful, about letting these clowns pawn off just anything on vulnerable family members...

I've been in long term care for a long time. And I'm not convinced that any medication is worth a hoot for Alzheimer's. I know most families are afraid not to give their loved ones Aricept.

Aricept is supposed to slow the circumstances of memory loss. Families are afraid NOT to use it and the drug company knows this and reaps sales from this. I mean, who wouldn't want their mother or father to enhance their live situation even temporarily? But based on my experience, it generally makes people worse, or it makes them sick and/or weak.

Even their clinical studies are inconclusive. In a way, it's a bit of a cruel trick...because families are vulnerable and afraid not to use it as I mentioned and don't want to withhold anything that may help their loved one. I'm not saying don't take it, only that it may not do a thing. No one really knows.