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Studies have shown that people with Down syndrome, caused by aneuploidy of chromosome 21, eventually develop early-onset Alzheimer disease (AD). These investigators tested whether the cholinesterase inhibitor rivastigmine, which has beneficial effects in patients with AD, would similarly help young patients with Down syndrome.
Participants (ages, 10–17) were ten children with trisomy 21 and one with mosaicism for trisomy 21; all could speak intelligibly and hear spoken language. The children received rivastigmine for 16 weeks in slowly titrated doses (maximum dosage, 4.5 mg/day by week 8).
One child discontinued treatment due to gastrointestinal, mood, and headache symptoms, and another child’s dose was lowered to 3.0 mg due to emotional labi…