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Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs Melody Petersen See book keywords and concepts

Eisai, the Japanese company that sold aricept in a partnership with Pfizer, dismissed the deaths of the aricept patients as a fluke, saying those assigned to take the sugar pill had been healthier than those taking the drug. The nation's medicines do not perform as promised by the advertisements because federal regulators demand little proof of their effectiveness before approving them for sale. In most cases, a company must show only that its product can outperform a sugar pill to some small degree. That is, it must show that its medicine is better than nothing.

Before You Take that Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad for Your Health J. Douglas Bremner See book keywords and concepts

The New York Times reported on March 17, 2006, on a study which at that time had not yet been published (Gardner Harris, "Study for Alzheimer's Drug Revives Questions on Risk"), which showed that of 974 patients with Alzheimer's who were treated with donepe-zil (Aricept) or placebo, eleven in the aricept group died, but there were no deaths in the placebo group. This difference was statistically significant. A similar significant increase in deaths was previously reported for Reminyl.

Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs Melody Petersen See book keywords and concepts

They then looked at what medicines these patients had been taking in the three months before that initial aricept prescription. They found that 30 percent of these Iowans had been taking drugs that were well known for causing dementia. These drugs included Ditropan, a medicine prescribed for incontinence; Elavil, an antidepressant; and antihistamines such as diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in many over-the-counter products, including Benadryl and Tylenol PM. Dr.

For example, researchers have struggled to see any improvement at all in patients with Alzheimer's disease who take drugs like aricept, which was promoted in 2005 with an ad showing a healthy grandmother playing and laughing with her grandchild. The ad's tagline: "Helping people be more like themselves longer." That claim did not match what a group of scientists found in 2006 after analyzing eighteen clinical trials of Ari-cept and two similar drugs, Razadyne and Exelon. The researchers found that patients taking the pills showed an average improvement of just 2.

On an episode of ER, the NBC television series, a patient with Alzheimer's disease is treated with a medicine called aricept. Writers put the pill into the script at the urging of the public relations firm working for Pfizer. The firm later boasted that twenty-five million Americans had learned about Pfizer's medicine from the television show. And in a video paid for by Wyeth-Ayerst, the maker of the hormone replacement therapy Prempro, Lauren Hutton boasted she "started looking a lot better" after she began taking the drug.

The woman's doctor reached for his prescription pad, giving her yet another medicine, this one called aricept, which was supposed to slow the mental decline. But the woman did not have Alzheimer's at all. Instead, Detrol had brought on the hallucinations and begun to steal her mind. Pharmacia was hardly the first drug company to use marketing to create a disease. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, the process of expanding markets by creating new maladies had become almost mechanized within the pharmaceutical industry.

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Approximately 20% of Alzheimer's patients have severe dementia, but the potential benefit of using aricept to treat them had not been studied until now. THE STUDY In the trial, a research team led by Dr. Bengt Winblad, director of the Karolinska Institute's neurology department, assigned 248 Alzheimer's patients who were living in nursing homes to receive either donepezil or a placebo for a period of six months.

The Food-Mood Connection: Nutrition-based and Environmental Approaches to Mental Health and Physical Wellbeing Gary Null and Amy McDonald See book keywords and concepts

The FDA-approved drugs for Alzheimer's disease include Cognex, aricept, Exelon, and Razadyne for mild to moderate symptoms; and Namenda for moderate to severe symptoms. As mentioned earlier in this chapter, although not approved by the FDA for Alzheimer's disease, other drugs, including antipsychotics, are being used to treat associated psychotic and behavioral symptoms. This practice has become a cause for concern by many practitioners. 5. HORMONE REPLACEMENT THERAPY. "Research on the effects of estrogen replacement therapy in the prevention of AD has been very exciting," Dr. Khalsa says.

Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda Jacky Law See book keywords and concepts

Susan Wandell, a business consultant in Minneapolis, told the Wall Street journal that her father was on aricept for more than ten years, until a month before he died at the age of 85. 'It took a long time before Dad got really bad. In my gut I believe it [the medication] helped my Dad.' Increasingly, that is what counts, despite the best efforts of science.34 My father, your father And if it was your father, you would probably want the drugs too, because the value placed on a declining memory is totally subjective.

The NHS occasionally conducts studies in the public interest, such as the one in 2004 confirming the cost of the Alzheimer's drug, aricept, to be too expensive. But vitamin C has no champion other than nutritionists and their followers, who argue among themselves and have neither the money nor the presence to get any real authority in a healthcare business so dominated by the large pharma firms.

Studies into the cost-effectiveness of aricept, for example, came up with CQGs ranging from £21,000 to £139,000 ($37,800-$250,200). With Exelon, they ranged between £16,000 and £46,000 ($28,200-$82,800). Those conducted by the NICE secretariat itself found a range from £32,000 to £52,000 ($57,600-$93,600), leading it to conclude the drugs were outside 'the range of cost-effectiveness that might be considered appropriate for the NHS'.

Such a squabble could have been predicted the moment the first significant trial in aricept that had not been sponsored by the industry was announced in June 2004. According to Clive Cookson, science editor of the Financial Times, 'The participants were selected to represent a range of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's in a real clinical setting, as opposed to the refined selection criteria used in trials sponsored by drugs companies.

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TREATING MEMORY DISORDERS WITH MEDICATIONS The most serious cases of memory loss require the most powerful remedies: drugs such as aricept, Exelon, Namenda, and Cognex. However, these drugs are used only after the disease has progressed significandy; only then will they have any impact, at which time they can slow down the worsening of symptoms. There is no reason to wait until you do poorly on the Braverman Memory Test or even the much simpler Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) most physicians will use. If you catch minor imbalances early, treatment can be tailored to your nature.

Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda Jacky Law See book keywords and concepts

And the Alzheimer's drugs, the cholinesterase inhibitors - aricept, Exelon, Reminyl and Ebixa - are a classic example. Now a $1.8 billion business, they work by boosting levels of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter believed to be important in memory and learning processes. But while these drugs do help this memory-robbing disease initially, eventually they become less effective. Also, because they don't act on the plaques and tangles in the brain that are thought to lead to Alzheimer's, the disease continues its grim progress.

Ultraprevention : The 6-Week Plan That Will Make You Healthy for Life Mark Hyman, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Jerry was currently taking aricept, which is used for Alzheimer's but has not been shown to slow the progression of the disease at all.) But as Jerry was fumbling around, trying to focus, we were beginning to wonder. To us, the most curious part of his story was Jerry's comment that he had many fillings in his teeth and that he frequently consumed the type of fish most often contaminated with mercury. This made us speculate that, despite the diagnosis, Jerry might not have Alzheimer's at all. He might be suffering from mercury poisoning.

Brain Longevity: The Breakthrough Medical Program that Improves Your Mind and Memory Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Currently the FDA has approved only two drugs, tacrine and aricept, for Alzheimer's disease. Tacrine, which slightly decreases symptoms in some patients, has possible serious side effects. It helps only a limited number of people for a limited period of time. aricept has fewer side effects. Frequently, patients are treated by their doctors with drugs that are not specifically approved for Alzheimer's, but that have shown beneficial effects. Often, however, the dosage levels are too low to elicit significant positive responses.

A new drug that was recendy approved for Alzheimer's, called aricept, may have fewer side effects. Like tacrine, aricept inhibits the breakdown of acetylcholine. Hydergine. Shown in a number of studies to be a somewhat effective treatment for slowing the progression of Alzheimer's, Hydergine, an extract of a fungus called ergot, has been used for many years to treat a wide range of senile dementias. It seems to be particularly effective for multi-infarct dementia.

Aricept has fewer side effects. Frequently, patients are treated by their doctors with drugs that are not specifically approved for Alzheimer's, but that have shown beneficial effects. Often, however, the dosage levels are too low to elicit significant positive responses. Also, it is rare for physicians to prescribe aggressive treatment during the very early stages of the disease, when it may be manifested as age-associated memory impairment. Many neurologists consider age-associated memory impairment to be benign, so they refuse to offer treatment for it.

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Keep in mind, however, that current therapies including vitamin E, ginkgo, and the medication aricept only delay the progression of dementia by about six to twelve months. The best potential for natural therapies is early on—for prevention—and to stick to the protective factors we outlined previously for arterial health, since your body's arteries are crucial for maintaining the health of your mind as well as your body.

The Green Pharmacy Anti-Aging Prescriptions: Herbs, Foods, and Natural Formulas to Keep You Young James A. Duke, Ph.D. See book keywords and concepts

Cognex and aricept aren't the only cholinesterase inhibitors on God's green earth. Not by a long shot. Quite a few herbs have similar effects. Meet the Anti-Alzheimer Herbs This brings me to Nicolette Perry, a British pharmacy researcher. Perry has studied herbal cholinesterase inhibition and has come up with for the Gardener Fennel Foeniculum vulgare A hardy perennial, fennel is easily started from seeds. Plants can reach 6 feet with minimal care, as long as they're weeded early on. They tolerate all kinds of soil, though they prefer well-drained loam or black, sandy soil.

Intelligent Medicine: A Guide to Optimizing Health and Preventing Illness for the Baby-Boomer Generation Ronald L. Hoffman, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

A new tacrinelike drug called aricept promises to deliver the improvements without certain of the side effects. Lecithin and lecithin derivatives have also been touted for the treatment of Alzheimer's because they too increase acetylcholine levels. Some studies have shown that removing heavy metals from the bloodstream through a procedure called chelation can help Alzheimer's patients. (For more on chelation, see chapter 12, page 323.) In particular, the use of desferoxamine, a chelator of aluminum and iron, has been shown in some studies to retard the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

Brain Longevity: The Breakthrough Medical Program that Improves Your Mind and Memory Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Do you commonly recommend tacrine or aricept? • Do you refer patients to university centers for investigational new drugs studies? • Are you familiar with the adjunctive therapies of complementary medicine? • Are you knowledgeable about recent developments in hormone replacement therapy? • Have you attended any national or international conferences on memory loss? • (For a general practitioner.) Would you recommend I also consult with a neurologist?

Like tacrine, aricept inhibits the breakdown of acetylcholine. Hydergine. Shown in a number of studies to be a somewhat effective treatment for slowing the progression of Alzheimer's, Hydergine, an extract of a fungus called ergot, has been used for many years to treat a wide range of senile dementias. It seems to be particularly effective for multi-infarct dementia. Hydergine increases cerebral blood flow, aids the breakdown of lipofuscin, is an effective antioxidant, and stimulates neuronal metabolism. It also appears to have properties similar to those of nerve growth hormone.

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