New therapy and dosage for Aricept – severe Alzheimer

Aricept was approved last year for a higher dosage to 23mg – current dosage may be 5 to 10mg. We recently found this out from a friend who is in the medical profession and received samples. My mom was “diagnosed” with Alzheimer’s in 2004 and has been on Aricept since then. The new dosage sounds like it is okay for people who have already been on Aricept 10mg for at least 6 weeks. I was unable to find much of the study results, yet the following may help a little.

“The FDA has approved Eisai's Aricept (donepezil HCl tablets) in a 23mg dosage strength for the treatment of moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease. This approval was based on clinical data from a study conducted in 1,467 patients with moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease. The study demonstrated that Aricept 23mg significantly improved cognition compared to Aricept 10mg as measured by the Severe Impairment Battery (SIB) assessment, which measures cognition. The changes in total score in the SIB (higher scores are better) was 2.6±0.58 in the 23mg group compared to 0.4±0.66 in the 10mg group, a difference of 2.2 (p=0.0001).

Aricept 23mg is expected to be available in August 2010. Aricept is already available in 5mg and 10mg dosage strength tablets. Aricept ODT (donepezil HCl orally-disintegrating tablets) is available in 5mg and 10mg dosage strengths.” (source: www.empr.com/aricept-23mg-approved-for-alzheimers-disease/article/175367)

Contact your doctor (mom sees a Geriatric specialist) to see if Aricept 23mg is okay for your loved one. You may have to tell them about the new prescribing information as our doctor’s staff was unaware of the new dosage. We continually try to keep up on medications even though we are not sure they are improving her memory or stopping the progression of Alzheimer’s. Aricept seemed to work for mom and tapered off after about 2 years when we saw a significant decline. Mom also takes Namenda (www.namenda.com.) She stopped taking Aricept earlier this year only to participate in a clinical study for advanced Alzheimer’s patients for a drug called Dimebon. The Dimebon study was cancelled in May as the trials found Dimebon to be no better than placebo. (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Alzheimers/pfizers-promising-alzheimers-drug-fails-study/story?id=9998774 )

There is always hope that new, better therapies will come. Since it is difficult to navigate our hope is that we can share practical information as we receive it.