Study Shows Taking a Statin Drug Can Help Treat Alzheimer's Disease

Further evidence that statin drugs may help in the fight against Alzheimer's disease has been provided by a prospective double-blind study of Alzheimer's disease patients published in the current issue of the Archives of Neurology.

Researchers led by Larry Sparks at the Sun Health Research Institute in Arizona found evidence that a daily dose of atorvastatin (Lipitor) could help slow the progressive deterioration of mental function and behavior usually found in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease patients.

According to the authors, this encouraging evidence provided a proof of concept for much larger studies which are currently ongoing.

Nymox Pharmaceutical holds U.S. and global patent rights for the use of statin drugs for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, the leading cause of dementia in the elderly, afflicting an estimated 4.5 million people in the U.S. alone.