Galantamine maintains ability to perform activities of daily living in patients with Alzheimer's disease

OBJECTIVES: To examine the effect of galantamine on activities of daily living (ADLs) with respect to baseline dementia severity, correlation with cognitive and global function, specific ADLs affected, and maintenance of ADL independence. DESIGN: Secondary analysis of a 5-month randomized, placebo-controlled trial. SETTING: Multiple U.S. clinical centers. PARTICIPANTS: Six hundred fifty-nine patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) who completed 5 months of treatment. INTERVENTION: Galantamine at a maintenance dose of 16 or 24 mg/d. MEASUREMENTS: The AD Cooperative Study ADL Inventory (ADCS/ADL). RESULTS: Galantamine resulted in more improvement in ADCS/ADL scores than placebo regardless of baseline dementia severity, with the greatest differences occurring in patients with more severe disease. Changes in ADCS/ADL scores correlated significantly with change scores on the cognitive subscale of the AD Assessment Scale (r=-0.24). Galantamine treatment resulted in maintenance or improvement of basic and instrumental ADLs, and change from baseline to Month 5 in scores for each individual ADL item favored galantamine over placebo in three of six basic ADLs and six of 17 instrumental ADLs. CONCLUSION: Galantamine has a favorable effect on ADL performance in patients with AD, detectable after 5 months of treatment, regardless of dementia severity. The ADCS/ADL appears to better measure distinct abilities that may be relevant not only in clinical trials but also in individual patients than do cognitive assessments.