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Neuropsychological changes in demented patients treated with acetyl-L-carnitine
E Sinforiani1, M Iannuccelli, M Mauri
1Department of Neurology 3rd, University of Pavia, Italy.
Insights
Acetyl-L-carnitine significantly improved behavioral profiles, attention, and psychomotricity in dementia patients. Piracetam showed no significant benefits in this comparative study.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Pharmacology
Background:
- Mild to moderate dementia presents significant cognitive and behavioral challenges.
- Current treatments offer limited efficacy for certain dementia subtypes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the efficacy of acetyl-L-carnitine versus piracetam in patients with mild to moderate dementia.
- To evaluate the impact of these treatments on cognitive, attentive, and behavioral aspects.
Main Methods:
- A simple blind study involved 24 dementia patients (DSM III criteria).
- Exclusion criteria included cerebrovascular pathology (Hachinski Ischaemic Score ≤ 4) and depression (Hamilton Rating Scale ≥ 18).
- Patients received either acetyl-L-carnitine or piracetam intravenously for two weeks, followed by oral administration for ten weeks.
Main Results:
- Acetyl-L-carnitine treatment resulted in statistically significant improvements in behavioral profile, attention, and psychomotricity.
- No significant improvements were observed in the piracetam group for the evaluated parameters.
Conclusions:
- Acetyl-L-carnitine demonstrates potential as an effective treatment for improving specific domains in mild to moderate dementia.
- Piracetam did not show significant efficacy in this patient cohort under the study conditions.
Abstract:
The study was carried out on 24 patients suffering from mild to moderate dementia. The diagnosis of dementia was made according to DMS III criteria. Patients with cerebrovascular pathologies were excluded by using Hachinski Ischaemic Score less than or equal to 4 and computerized tomography parameters. Patients with depression (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression greater than or equal to 18) were excluded. All the patients, after a wash-out period of two weeks were treated on a simple blind method with acetyl-L-carnitine (No. = 12 patients) and piracetam (12 patients) by intravenous route (two weeks) followed by an oral one for further 10 weeks. A battery of clinical neuropsychological tests was applied to evaluate the cognitive, attentive and behavioural aspects. The results, analysed by non-parametric variance analysis (Friedman Test) show a statistically significant improvement of the behavioural profile, of attention and of psychomotricity in the patients treated with acetyl-L-carnitine. No significant improvement was found in the piracetam group.