Progress Against Dementia: Drug slows Alzheimer’s in severely ill patients
By Nathan Seppa
A drug already sold in Europe hampers the relentless assault of late-stage Alzheimer’s disease, a new study reveals. The finding suggests that the drug, called memantine, could help patients previously considered untreatable.
“This is really the first drug that seems to have had salutary effects in the more advanced cases of Alzheimer’s disease,” says Neil S. Buckholtz, a neuroscientist who heads the Dementia and Aging Branch of the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Md.