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New Alzheimer drugs: serious, sometimes
fatal adverse effects

Drugs used to treat Alzheimer’s disease have serious adverse effects and only limited effectiveness.

The regional pharmacovigilance centre in Caen, France has studied the adverse effects of drugs used to treat patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

According to the study, carried out in north-west France, a third of the adverse effects reported were cardiovascular disorders and another third were neurological disorders. 62% of the adverse effects (out of 71) were serious. 2 patients continued to suffer after-effects and 3 died, 2 as a result of the adverse effect (aggravation of a bronchial spasm and serous cardiac arrhythmia).

In 21% of cases, the adverse effect appeared shortly after treatment commenced or after an increase in the dosage.

The data confirms other findings already published: the benefit of these treatments is often too limited to run the risk of such serious adverse effects.

©Prescrire November 2007

Source: "Anti-Alzheimer : des effets indésirables graves souvent mortels (suite)" Rev Prescrire 2007 ; 27 (289) : 828

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