Old Antihistamine Could Improve Symptoms in Alzheimer Patients

Existing treatments for patients with Alzheimer disease slow progression only modestly and work only temporarily. Dimebon is an old nonselective antihistamine that recently has been found to have beneficial effects in models of neurodegenerative disease; it inhibits cholinesterase weakly, and it has several other potentially neuroprotective effects.

Manufacturer-sponsored investigators in Russia randomized 183 patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer disease to receive oral dimebon or placebo. Of 155 patients who completed the first 26 weeks of the study, 134 entered an extended blinded treatment period (for an additional 26 weeks), and 120 patients completed the extended phase.

After both the initial 26-week period and the extended phase, pa…