Aricept :: Drugs Health Alzheimers Disease Essays

Aricept What is Alzheimers indisposition? Alzheimers disease is a disease in which the memory, judgment, and thought processes atomic number 18 impaired. The moods and personality of a sufferer may also be affected. The symptoms may progress belatedly and come-and-go. (http//www.healingwell.com/alzheimers/info.htm) This disease affects the cholinergic functions in the brain. It causes a deficiency of cholinergic nerve cell transmission. Thus, the memory of the Alzheimers patient is impaired. The drug donepezil hydrochloride enhances the cholinergic functions. As the bill of functioning neurons decreases, the drugs takingsiveness decreases. (http//pfizer.com/hml/pis/ariceptpi.html) What is Aricept? Aricept is a drug used to treat Alzheimers disease. It is available in tab key form and is considered to be in the drug sub-class of an acetylcholin-esterase inhibitor. Patients should start taking 5 mg of Aricept at bedtime. After four to six weeks, the d ose send away be increased to 10 mg/day. It is used to decrease the round the bend to moderate symptoms of the disease in an effort to reverse, reduce, or retard the moral and behavioral process of dementia. Aricept is not a cure for the disease, but it is a way to make it to a greater extent man yearsable. (http//www.mayohealth.org/mayo/9804/htm/alztreat.htm)How does it work? Aricept is also know as donepezil hydrochloride and E2020. It is a reversible inhibitor of the enzyme acetyl cholinesterase, and has an empirical formula of C24H29NO3HCL. (pic. from Pfizer) The donepezil hydrochloride enhances cholinergic function by increasing acetylcholine though its inhibiting of acetyl cholinesterase. This effect is thought to lessen as the disease advances because fewer cholinergic neurons are functioning. Thus, donepezil does not alter the course of the dementing process it just makes the dementia more tolerable. (http//pfizer.com/hml/pis/ariceptpi.html) Is it effective? Aricept has been determined to be an effective give-and-take during its use. This is proved by the various clinical studies. The people at Pfizer incorporated studied Aricept to determine if it was an effective treatment for Alzheimers disease. They conducted two randomized, treble blind, placebo-controlled clinical investigations with Alzheimers patients. The ages of the participants ranged from 50 to 94 with a mean age of 73. The participants were 62% women and 38% men.