ADDING CHINESE HERBAL MEDICINE TO CONVENTIONAL THERAPY BRINGS COGNITIVE BENEFITS TO PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE: A TWO-YEAR STUDY

Conventional therapy (CT), such as donepezil and memantine are well-known short-term treatments for the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). They, however, have little disease-modifying effects after 18 months. In a two-year study, combined CT with Chinese herbal medicines (CT+H) significantly ameliorated cognitive decline in patients with mild to moderate AD. A cohort of outpatients (n=344) meeting criteria for clinical diagnosis of AD were treated with either CT+H (n=243) or CT alone (n=101) for two years. All participants underwent standardized neuropsychological assessments. Coronary MRI scans were used to assess the age-adjusted medial temporal lobe atrophy. Cognitive function was assessed by the mini–mental state examination (MMSE) every 3 months. Most of the patients were initially diagnosed with mild (MMSE=21–26, n=177) and moderate (MMSE=10–20, n=137) dementia. At 18 months, CT+ H patients scored on average 1.76 (P=0.002) better than CT patients, and at 24 months, patients scored on average 2.52 (P<0.001) better (Figure 1). Patients with mild AD received the most robust benefit from CT+H therapy. The deterioration of the cognitive function was largely prevented at 24 months (ΔMMSE=-0.06), a significant improvement from CT alone (ΔMMSE=-2.66, P=0.005). Overall number of patients with improved (ΔMMSE≥0) or deteriorated (ΔMMSE≥-4) were showed over time (Table 1).