LISURIDE TREATMENT OF ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE - A PRELIMINARY PLACEBO-CONTROLLED CLINICAL-TRIAL OF SAFETY AND THERAPEUTIC EFFICACY

In this article, the authors examine the effect of lisuride on 22 pati ents with probable Alzheimer's disease (NINCDS/ADRDA criteria) in a ra ndomized double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group design. Ten patients received lisuride and 12 patients received placebo. Lisuride was administered in a dose-finding phase of four weeks and an efficacy phase of eight weeks, with a maximum dose of 0.3 mg daily. Outcome me asures included global clinical impression, general cognitive function , mood, verbal and visual memory, attention, and psychomotor function. Average decline in Mini-Mental Sate Examination score after 12 weeks treatment was less often statistically significant in lisuride treated patients than in patients receiving B placebo (p < 0.05). Patients tr eated with lisuride improved their average total score and short-delay cued recall score on the California Verbal Learning Test, a test of v erbal memory, whereas placebo-treated patients showed worse performanc e compared with baseline. These differences approached statistical sig nificance, with p = 0.06 and p = 0.05, respectively. No other differen ces between the treatment groups were evident. The authors failed to f ind a consistent effect of lisuride on symptoms of Alzheimer's disease . Howl ever, this study's sample size was relatively small, and larger studies are needed to ascertain the treatment effects of serotonergic antagonists on Alzheimer's disease.