MEDICINE : Alzheimer’s Drug Found Useless

The only medication approved for treating Alzheimer’s disease is useless and may actually make the disease worse, a study concluded today.

Researchers found that patients who took Hydergine, the 11th most prescribed drug in the world, deteriorated faster than those who got dummy pills.

The researchers said this was a surprise, and they were unsure why it happened.

“We can only speculate that the drug may cause cognitive dysfunction, perhaps through a direct toxic effect or by accelerating the progression of Alzheimer’s disease,” they wrote.

Researchers described the study, conducted on 80 older adults at the University of Colorado Medical School, as the most extensive U.S. attempt to evaluate the drug’s effects. The findings were published in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.