Thousands of Alzheimer’s sufferers could remain at home with £21 drug

Researchers have urged doctors to stop taking patients off the drug
Researchers have urged doctors to stop taking patients off the drug
AMELIE-BENOIST/CORBIS

Thousands of people with Alzheimer’s disease could delay going into nursing homes by taking a drug costing £21 a year.

Patients who stopped taking donepezil were twice as likely to go into a home over the following year as those who carried on with it, a trial found.

The researchers have urged doctors to stop taking patients off the drug in the belief that it would no longer be effective as the disease advanced. “It’s a modest effect but it’s an important effect if it’s your mother, wife, or someone close to you,” Robert Howard, of University College London, who led the study, said.

Some experts expressed scepticism about the findings, others said that patients must be helped to make the most of the few