A 1-year multicenter placebo-controlled study of acetyl-L-carnitine in patients with Alzheimer's disease

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of L-Carnitine, published as a randomized controlled trial.

The Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale cognitive component and the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale were the primary outcome measures.

In a subanalysis by age that compared early-onset patients (aged 65 years or younger at study entry) with late-onset patients (older than 66 at study entry), the researchers found a trend for early-onset patients on ALCAR to decline more slowly than early-onset AD patients on placebo on both primary endpoints.

Who Took Part

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

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and parallel-group study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the L-Carnitine group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on L-Carnitine, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

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

Groups ran in parallel: each of the participants stayed in one arm throughout.

The timeline in the abstract includes 12 months.

What Was Measured

The Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale cognitive component and the Clinical Dementia Rating Scale were the primary outcome measures.

In a subanalysis by age that compared early-onset patients (aged 65 years or younger at study entry) with late-onset patients (older than 66 at study entry), the researchers found a trend for early-onset patients on ALCAR to decline more slowly than early-onset AD patients on placebo on both primary endpoints.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Acetylcarnitine and Alzheimer Disease.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of L-Carnitine over 12 months.

The publication is from 1996 (Neurology), a journal based in United States.

More context: the L-Carnitine compound page, all human trials.