Gustafson_1993_Acta.Neurol.Scand.Suppl_149_39

The cholinergic hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) was tested in two doubleblind crossover studies. Physostigmine given intravenously to 10 AD patients for two hours caused improvement of reaction time and EEG and increased regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in the temporoparietal cortex. 17 AD patients (mean age 62.6 +/- 6.8 years) obtained three types of treatment: tetrahydroaminoacridine (THA), THA + lecithin and placebo in randomized order. Each treatment period was 6 weeks. The mean THA dose was 104 +/- 20 mg/day. There were differences in outcome between groups of patients over the total 26 weeks treatment period. The subclassification in responders, unchanged and deteriorated was supported by rCBF, EEG and psychometric testing.