COX-2 Inhibitors Do Not Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease
Although scientists had hoped that the painkiller rofecoxib (Vioxx®, Merck) would help to prevent Alzheimer’s disease (AD), an earlier study this year found that this drug, along with naproxen generic (e.g., Aleve®, Naprosyn Drug, Roche) did not benefit patients who already had AD.
The findings were revealed at the annual meeting of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The study had enrolled 1,457 older patients with mild cognitive impairment, a group with risk factors for the development of AD. After half of the patients received rofecoxib therapy and the other half were given a placebo, it was found that AD developed in 6.4% of the rofecoxib group and in 4.5% of the placebo group. The study was discontinued after 189 cases of AD were observed.
On the surface, it appears that rofe-coxib caused AD in these patients, but an analysis of the patients’ cognitive abilities showed that the risk associated with the drug was similar to that for the placebo.
COX-2 inhibitors attack inflammation, and it had been thought that these drugs would be able to prevent AD by inhibiting inflammation of the neurons in the brain.
