Persistence of the effects of Cerebrolysin on cognition and qEEG slowing in vascular dementia patients: results of a 3-month extension study

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Cerebrolysin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The maintenance of the effects of Cerebrolysin, a peptidergic compound with neurotrophic activity, on cognitive performance and qEEG activity was investigated through a 12-week, open-label extension of a 4-week, randomised, placebo-controlled pilot study.

Thirty-three out of 41 patients with mild-to-moderate severe probable vascular dementia (VaD) according to NINDS-AIREN participating in the double-blind phase of the study were also assessed at the follow-up visit at week 16.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 41 patients were involved.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults, older adults and people over 80, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, open-label, placebo-controlled and pilot.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Cerebrolysin and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Cerebrolysin.

Nothing was hidden in this open-label Cerebrolysin study: the patients and staff both knew the treatment.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Cerebrolysin group a baseline to be compared against.

What Was Measured

Thirty-three out of 41 patients with mild-to-moderate severe probable vascular dementia (VaD) according to NINDS-AIREN participating in the double-blind phase of the study were also assessed at the follow-up visit at week 16.

Neuropsychological evaluations and qEEG recordings were done at baseline, week 4 and week 16.

The subject headings attached to it are Amino Acids, Analysis of Variance, Brain, Brain Mapping, Cognition, Dementia, Vascular and Electroencephalography.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and open-label study of Cerebrolysin in 41 patients.

The publication is from 2010 (Journal of the neurological sciences), a journal based in Netherlands.

More context: the Cerebrolysin compound page, all human trials.