Methodology of a Controlled Trial in Alzheimer’s Disease

Abstract

The various evaluation scales available to study the clinical courses of Alzheimer-like dementias are controverted, and the practical aspects of a controlled trial are being considered. A tentative protocol has been designed, in which multiple individual assessments are combined with several validated scales and tests. This protocol would lend itself to a multicentre study, as it only includes evaluation tools that are easy to handle and do not require too much time. It should make it possible to select a relatively homogeneous group of patients and provide an opportunity to quantify the course of Alzheimer's disease over one year. In the discussion, emphasis is laid upon the foreseeable difficulty to evaluate a therapeutic benefit in our present imperfect knowledge of the natural history and prognostic factors of the disease