Pre-clinical and human neuropharmacological evidence suggests a role of cholinergic modulation of monoamines as a pathophysiological and therapeutic mechanism in Alzheimer's disease. The present study measured the effects of treatment with the cholinesterase inhibitor and nicotinic receptor modulator, galantamine, on the cerebral metabolic response to the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor,...

An increasing number of studies suggest that the present clinical therapy used in Alzheimer's disease (AD), in addition to having a symptomatic effect, also may interact with the ongoing neuropathological processes in the brain. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the cholinesterase inhibitor galantamine and the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist memantine in comparison t...

OBJECTIVES To understand how commonly diminution of verbal repetition was a goal of treatment in patients with Alzheimer disease (AD), how commonly that goal was achieved, whether goal attainment might be attributable to galantamine treatment, and whether change in verbal repetition is a marker of the overall treatment response. METHODS This is a secondary analysis of the Video-Imaging Synthe...

OBJECTIVE This study compares the efficacy of the cholinesterase inhibitor (ChEI) galantamine on cognition in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's dementia (AD) who were either naïve to ChEI drugs or who had failed a trial of the ChEI donepezil. METHODS Outpatients with AD were sequentially referred for screening and enrollment. Current outpatients who had taken donepezil for at least 6...

The plant alkaloid galantamine is an established symptomatic drug treatment for Alzheimer's disease (AD), providing temporary cognitive and global relief in human patients. In this study, the 5X Familial Alzheimer's Disease (5XFAD) mouse model was used to investigate the effect of chronic galantamine treatment on behavior and amyloid β (Aβ) plaque deposition in the mouse brain. Quantification o...

The Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS) project designed to facilitate the development of new drugs for the treatment of cognitive impairments in people with schizophrenia, identified three drug mechanisms of particular interest: dopaminergic, cholinergic, and glutamatergic. Galantamine is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor and a positive allosteric...

INTRODUCTION We discuss the case of a 51 year old former mid-wife presented to the NHS Luton and Bedfordshire psychiatric services with a 2 year history of increasing forgetfulness with significant impairment to her daily function. She was diagnosed with non-familial early-onset Alzheimer's Disease (EOAD) and started on 8mg daily of the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor Galantamine. METHODS The ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The positive effects of galantamine on cognition and activities of daily living (ADL) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are thought to be mediated via improvements in attention. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of galantamine on attention in AD patients using a computerized attention test and to elucidate the relationship between improvements in attention a...

BACKGROUND In the absence of long-term, placebo-controlled studies of cholinesterase inhibitors in Alzheimer's disease (AD), analysis of the results of open-label trials becomes crucial. This study aimed to explore the three-year effects of galantamine treatment, as well as subgroups of response and adherence to treatment. METHODS Two hundred and eighty patients with a clinical diagnosis of A...

BACKGROUND Cholinesterase inhibitors, such as galantamine, donepezil and rivastigmine are approved for symptomatic treatment of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) in Canada. In making choices amongst these drugs, one should consider their clinical merits and their economic implications. METHODS Each drug's short-term efficacy was estimated based on independent Cochrane reviews of the clinical trials. L...