A trial of thiamine in Alzheimer's disease
K. A. Nolan, R. S. Black, K. F. Sheu, J. Langberg and J. P. Blass
Altschul Laboratory for Dementia Research, Cornell University Medical College, Burke Rehabilitation Center, White Plains, NY 10605.
Because a previous short-term study demonstrated a statistically
significant, but not clinically important, improvement in cognitive test
scores during thiamine treatment in patients with dementia of the
Alzheimer's type, a 12-month, double-blind, parallel-group study was
conducted to examine whether long-term administration of thiamine at 3 g/d
might slow the progression of dementia of the Alzheimer's type. Fifteen
subjects were enrolled and 10 completed the 1-year study. Data are
available for two additional subjects through the first 9 months of study.
No significant differences were found between the placebo and thiamine
groups at any point during the study. In both groups, overall means for the
Mini-Mental State Examination, verbal learning, and naming scores decreased
significantly over the 12-month study period. These results do not support
the hypothesis that long-term administration of thiamine at 3 g/d might
slow the progression of dementia of the Alzheimer's type.
