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Treating Alzheimer's disease: Do clinical trial methods produce unnecessary practitioner dilemmas?

Park City, Utah

Recent clinical trials and critical reviews of Alzheimer's disease (AD) research discourage already relatively sparing clinical uses of cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) considering the prevalence of AD. As evidence against use of this class of drugs, detractors cite critical reviews of ChEls and lack of long-term health benefits found in one long-term clinical trial. This paper describes the use of standard error of measurement to allow investigators to design clinical trials that address these issues. The new clinical trial procedures afford sufficient precision for two purposes. First, practitioners can assess individual patients with precision and certainty in their observations. Second, clinical trial researchers can study how short-term drug effects on individual patients predict long-term benefits from continued treatment. With these more clinically informative clinical trial designs, investigators would be able to avoid uncertainties currently raised by conflicts between short-and long-term AD clinical trials.

Key Words: Alzheimer's disease • treatment • clinical trials • standard error of measurement • precision • clinical judgment

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American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias®, Vol. 21, No. 2, 81-84 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/153331750602100206


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Becker, R. E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Becker, R. E. Pubmed/NCBI databases Medline Plus Health Information Alzheimer's Disease Clinical Trials Social Bookmarking                         What's this?