CHICAGO – Results from a large government experiment are dimming hopes that two common painkillers can prevent Alzheimer's disease or slow mental decline in older people.
The arthritis drug Celebrex and the over-the-counter painkiller Aleve showed no benefit on thinking skills, new findings show. Earlier results from the same research showed the two drugs didn't prevent Alzheimer's, at least in the short term.
The experiment was halted several years early in 2004 when heart risks turned up in a separate study on Celebrex. Researchers also had noticed more heart attacks and strokes in the people taking Aleve in the Alzheimer's prevention study.
Despite the study's early end, there was still enough data to hint at how the drugs act on thinking and memory. The findings were posted online yesterday and will appear in July's Archives of Neurology. The 2004 study included more than 2,000 people ages 70 and older.
“These were not the results we were hoping for,” said co-author Barbara Martin of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “We designed this study hoping we would see a protective effect of these drugs.”
Researchers hope to continue monitoring the participants to see if they find any delayed benefit.
Scientists have speculated that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, such as Aleve and Celebrex, might prevent Alzheimer's by reducing inflammation in the brain or by other means.
