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Rivastigmine-Risperidone Co-administration Safe in Dementia Patients with Behavioural Disturbances: Presented at IADRD

By Peggy Peck
Special to DG News

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN -- July 23, 2002 -- Rivastigmine and risperidone can be safely co-administered to treat behavioural disturbances in patients with dementia, according to results of a small, randomised, open-label trial.

Mark Weiser, MD, of Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, presented the findings here July 22 at the 8^th International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders (IADRD).

He noted that most Alzheimer's disease patients demonstrated various degrees of behavioural disturbances in addition to cognitive impairment. For that reason, the use of polypharmacy in this population is likely to increase, he said.

Most notably, as the use of cholinesterase inhibitors for the treatment of cognitive impairment in dementia becomes widespread, many of these patients will be treated concomitantly with cholinesterase inhibitors and with anti-psychotic drugs to ameliorate behavioural disturbances.

But while many clinicians are already using this combination, its safety and tolerability has not been evaluated in controlled clinical trials, he said.

Dr. Weiser and colleagues conducted this pilot study to examine the effects of the addition of risperidone to rivastigmine and vice versa.

Sixty-five patients with Alzheimer's disease, 10 with vascular dementia, and 15 with both were randomised to open-label rivastigmine 0.5 mg/day to 2 mg/day and risperidone 3 mg/day to 12 mg/day, alone or in combination, for 20 weeks.

Study end points were adverse events caused by co-administration of both drugs. Dr. Weiser said the combination was well tolerated and no clinically relevant adverse interactions were observed.

"The findings suggest the need for a larger study of co-administration to quantify efficacy," he said.

Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland, funded the study.

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