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The thinking and memory problems of Parkinson’s Disease have been neglected by scientists studying PD? despite the fact that these problems adversely affect the lives of both persons with PD and their families. This website on PD pledges to constantly agitate for development of new treatments for cognitive problems of PD. A recent study published in the Journal of Neurology, Neuropsychiatry and Neurosurgery took up the challenge of developing a treatment strategy for cognitive problems of PD but came up empty-handed. The scientists studied the efficacy and safety of galantamine for treatment of mild thinking problems of PD. The scientists designed their study very well. Sixty-nine non-demented PD participants were randomized in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of galantamine or placebo. Galantamine was administered over 16 weeks (8 mg/day for 4 weeks, a therapeutic dose of 16 mg/day for 6 weeks and a maximum dose of 24 mg/day for 6 weeks). They then compared cognitive performance of those participants who got galantamine with those who got the placebo. Unfortunately, no significant differences were found between the galantamine and placebo groups on any measure of cognitive performance. Before concluding however that galantamine will not work for persons with PD it should be noted that the patients who participated in the study did not have severe cognitive deficits so it was difficult to demonstrate improvement in cognitive performance given that participant performance was high to begin with. Another problem was that many participants dropped out of the study because they experience serious side effects from galantamine. Thus before writing off this medicine as a potential treatment for cognitive problems of PD we need a study that includes larger numbers of PD patients who evidence serious cognitive problems and we need a form of galantamine without serious side effects. Source: J Grace, M M Amick, J H Friedman; A double-blind comparison of galantamine hydrobromide ER and placebo in Parkinson disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 2009;80:18-23. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn