Aricept donepezil: Phase IV data

Researchers at King's College London and colleagues reported data from the double-blind, U.K. Phase IV DOMINO trial in 295 patients with moderate to severe AD who had been treated with Aricept for at least 3 months showing that continued treatment with Aricept for 52 weeks significantly improved SMMSE and BADLS scores, the co-primary endpoints, vs. patients who discontinued Aricept (p<0.001 for both). Additionally, patients who received memantine, regardless of whether Aricept was continued or not, had significant improvements on both endpoints vs. patients who did not receive memantine (p<0.001 and p=0.02, respectively). There was no significant benefit on either endpoint of adding memantine to Aricept compared to Aricept alone (p=0.07 and p=0.57, respectively). Patients were randomized to continue Aricept, discontinue Aricept, discontinue Aricept and start memantine, or continue Aricept and start memantine. Data were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. ...