Drug cuts fractures in Alzheimer, stroke patients
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People with Alzheimer’s Disease or certain types of Stroke are at increased risk for breaking a hip, but investigators in Japan have found that the bone-strengthening drug Actonel reduces this risk in both patient groups.
Vitamin D deficiency ultimately leads to bone thinning in female patients with Alzheimer’s, Dr. Yoshihiro Sato and colleagues note in their report.
Sato, from Mitate Hospital in Tagawa, and colleagues assessed the outcomes of 500 older women with Alzheimer’s who were randomly treated with Actonel (generic name, risedronate) or inactive “placebo” for several months. Both groups received standard calcium supplements.
After 18 months of follow-up, there were eight non-spine fractures in the risedronate group, much fewer than the 29 observed in the placebo group. Most of these fractures in each group involved the hip. The findings appear in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Treatment with risedronate was tied to an increase in bone thickness, whereas a slight decrease was noted in the placebo group.
Based on these findings, Sato’s group concludes that the treatment “may be safe and effective in increasing bone mass and reducing the risk of fractures in elderly women with Alzheimer’s Disease.”
In a second Archives paper, Sato’s team notes that Stroke is also associated with bone thinning due to a vitamin D deficiency, brought on by not getting enough sunlight.
The authors conducted an 18-month study of 280 older men who had experienced a Stroke with paralysis of one side of the body. Within 3 months of the stroke they were randomly treated with risedronate or placebo.
During follow-up there were two hip fractures in the risedronate group and 10 in the placebo group, all on the paralyzed side. Once again, bone thickness rose with risedronate and fell with placebo use.
In contrast to the Alzheimer’s patients, the authors do not recommend calcium supplements for stroke patients since it may lead to abnormally high levels of the mineral in this group.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, August 8/22, 2005.
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