Medical, tacrine for Alzheimer's

tacrine for Alzheimer's

Author	Message
Gary Lipt #1 / 6	tacrine for Alzheimer's This week U.S. News & World Report has an article about a new drug for Alzheimer's, called tacrine, for which FDA approval is imminent. If anyone could supply some more in-depth information, I'd like to hear it, particularly: + When can approval be expected (USN&WR says this month)? + How effective? + Side effects? + Other references? -- *************************************** * Gary Lipton, Dept. of EE * * Lafayette College, Easton, PA 18042 * ***************************************
Sun, 22 Oct 1995 23:09:09 GMT

Steve Dy #2 / 6	tacrine for Alzheimer's Quote: >This week U.S. News & World Report has an article about a new >drug for Alzheimer's, called tacrine, for which FDA approval is >imminent. If anyone could supply some more in-depth information, >I'd like to hear it, particularly: >+ When can approval be expected (USN&WR says this month)? I thought it was already approved, though that may be have been just the FDA advisory board. Quote: >+ How effective? Marginally. It's going to be a waste of money for the vast majority of patients; probably all of them. Getting a barely measurable increase in cognitive scores in standardized tests does not translate into any measurable clinical benefit. The drug was recommended for approval only because there simply isn't anything else available. Think of its wider use as just a laboratory investigation on a grander scale, except that the patients, families and third-party insurance firms are now going to have to pay for the drug, which is not cheap. Quote: >+ Side effects? Aside from its cholinergic side effects, the drug is hepatotoxic. Usually, asymptomatic elevation of liver enzymes, but as it gets more widely used, we can expect to see other, more severe mani- festations of liver toxicity. -- Steve Dyer
Mon, 23 Oct 1995 04:33:15 GMT

Rick Buchan #3 / 6	tacrine for Alzheimer's Quote: (Gary Lipton) writes: > This week U.S. News & World Report has an article about a new > drug for Alzheimer's, called tacrine, for which FDA approval is > imminent. If anyone could supply some more in-depth information, > I'd like to hear it, particularly: > + When can approval be expected (USN&WR says this month)? > + How effective? > + Side effects? Poverty.
Mon, 23 Oct 1995 06:58:11 GMT

David N #4 / 6	tacrine for Alzheimer's Date: 5 May 93 15:09:09 -0600 Quote: >This week U.S. News & World Report has an article about a new drug for >Alzheimer's, called tacrine It doesn't look too promising. It benefits slightly a minority of the patients taking it, and the incidence of side effects bad enough to require stopping the drug is high. It does nothing to slow progression of the disease. I doubt I'll be prescribing it, particularly if it is as expensive as most new {filter} are these days. This is patently absurd; but whoever wishes to become a philosopher must learn not to be frightened by absurdities. -- Bertrand Russell
Mon, 23 Oct 1995 13:43:17 GMT

Gordon Ban #5 / 6	tacrine for Alzheimer's From what I've read, the drug is largely going to be a waste of money, and has bad side effects. I don't plan to offer it to my patients unless they insist. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gordon Banks N3JXP \| "To the intelligent, life is infinitely mysterious. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tue, 24 Oct 1995 01:14:08 GMT

Jim Zisfe #6 / 6	tacrine for Alzheimer's GB> From what I've read, the drug is largely going to be a waste GB> of money, and has bad side effects. I don't plan to offer GB> it to my patients unless they insist. Patients and their families need to understand the difference between "symptomatic" and "protective" effects of a drug. The former should be an unemotional issue: try the stuff for a week or so, if there is a clear improvement without toxicity - continue it, if there is toxicity or lack of benefit - stop it. The latter calls for use of the drug despite obvious lack of benefit, despite toxicity, and despite enormous cost, because the payoff will be better function years later. In Parkinson's disease, we are finally off the selegiline roller coaster, now that re-analysis of DATATOP shows the benefits to have been "symptomatic" rather than "protective". There are far better symptomatic therapies (Sinemet, for one). Unfortunately, it will be much longer before patients and their support groups get the message. Neurologists are still getting demands for selegiline, especially when the health insurance pays for medications. The resultant prescriptions waste everyone's money. I'm sure the Alzheimer's support groups are gearing up for a major push to get tacrine started on every Alzheimer's patient. As with selegiline, I believe that there is widespread misunderstanding about the nature of tacrine benefits (if any). Tacrine is of symptomatic benefit only - even its wildest adherents do not claim that the drug decreases the rate of brain cell death. All responsible physicians must carefully explain what tacrine is supposed to do, or not do. If the drug is used at all, it should be used in a brief therapeutic trial (weeks, not months or years) with careful and dispassionate monitoring of cognitive changes. ---
Thu, 26 Oct 1995 06:45:00 GMT

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