帕金森病藥物可能有助于抑制老年癡呆患者的幻覺

Parkinson’s drug may help curb delusions in Alzheimer’s patients

帕金森病藥物可能有助于抑制老年癡呆患者的幻覺

A drug that curbs delusions in Parkinson’s patients did the same for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in a study that was stopped early because the benefit seemed clear.

在一項研究中，一種抑制帕金森氏癥患者妄想的藥物，對阿爾茨海默氏癥和其他形式的癡呆癥患者也起到了同樣的作用，該研究因其益處似乎顯而易見而提前停止。

If regulators agree, the drug could become the first treatment specifically for dementia-related psychosis and the first new medicine for Alzheimer’s in nearly two decades. It targets some of the most troubling symptoms that patients and caregivers face — hallucinations that often lead to anxiety, aggression and physical and verbal abuse.

如果監(jiān)管機構同意，這種藥物可能成為近20年來第一種專門治療癡呆相關精神病的藥物，也是第一種治療老年癡呆癥的新藥。它針對的是病人和照顧者所面臨的一些最令人不安的癥狀——經(jīng)常導致焦慮、攻擊性、身體和語言虐待的幻覺。

Results were disclosed Wednesday at a conference in San Diego.

周三在圣地亞哥的一個會議上公布了結果。

“This would be a very important advance,” said one independent expert, Dr. Howard Fillit, chief science officer of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.

“這將是一個非常重要的進展，”一位獨立專家，阿爾茨海默病藥物發(fā)現(xiàn)基金會首席科學官霍華德·菲利特博士說。

Although the field is focused on finding a cure for dementia and preventing future cases, “there is a huge unmet need for better treatment” for those who have it now, said Maria Carrillo, the Alzheimer’s Association’s chief science officer.

阿爾茨海默病協(xié)會首席科學官瑪麗亞·卡里略(Maria Carrillo)說，盡管這一領域的重點是尋找治療癡呆癥的方法和預防未來的病例，但對現(xiàn)在患有癡呆癥的人來說，“對更好的治療的巨大需求尚未得到滿足”。

The drug is pimavanserin, a daily pill sold as Nuplazid by Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. It was approved for Parkinson’s-related psychosis in 2016 and is thought to work by blocking a brain chemical that seems to spur delusions.

該藥名為匹馬萬色林(pimavanserin)，是阿卡迪亞制藥公司(Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc.)以Nuplazid的名義銷售的一種每日服用的藥片。2016年，該藥物被批準用于治療與帕金森癥相關的精神病，并被認為通過阻斷一種似乎能刺激錯覺的大腦化學物質發(fā)揮作用。

About 8 million Americans have dementia and studies suggest that up to 30 percent of them develop psychosis.

大約有800萬美國人患有癡呆癥，研究表明，其中多達30%的人患有精神病。

“It’s terrifying,” said Dr. Jeffrey Cummings of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas. “You believe that people might be trying to hurt you. You believe that people are stealing from you. You believe that your spouse is unfaithful to you. Those are the three most common false beliefs.”

“這太可怕了，”拉斯維加斯克利夫蘭盧魯沃腦健康中心的杰弗里·卡明斯博士說。“你相信人們可能會試圖傷害你。你相信有人在偷你的東西。你相信你的配偶對你不忠。這是三種最常見的錯誤幻覺。”

Carrillo said the study was small, but the drug’s effect seemed large and it’s not known whether the federal Food and Drug Administration would want more evidence to approve a new use.

Carrillo說，這項研究規(guī)模很小，但是這種藥物的效果似乎很大，目前還不清楚聯(lián)邦食品和藥物管理局是否需要更多的證據(jù)來批準一種新的用途。

Current anti-psychotic medicines have some major drawbacks and are not approved for dementia patients.

目前的抗精神病藥物有一些主要的缺點，并沒有被批準用于癡呆患者。