Current and future clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease: evolving ethical concerns

1. An increase in the cases of Alzheimer's disease, primarily consequent to the rapid growth of the elderly population necessitates the enhanced pace of anti-dementia drug development and an increase in clinical trials. Clinical trials with persons with dementia, however, present with a number of ethical concerns that need to be anticipated and analyzed. 2. The present review first discusses some of the on-going and possible future experimental approaches to anti-dementia drug development. 3. Some of the ethical concerns raised by anti-dementia drug research with human subjects are then examined. A few preliminary recommendations for future directions are proposed. It is important to anticipate issues of ethical and social concern and establish forums for appropriate bioethical analysis.