Parkinson’s drug may help curb delusions in Alzheimer’s patients

帕金森病药物可能有助于抑制老年痴呆患者的幻觉

A drug that curbs delusions in Parkinson’s patients did the same for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in a study that was stopped early because the benefit seemed clear.

在一项研究中，一种抑制帕金森氏症患者妄想的药物，对阿尔茨海默氏症和其他形式的痴呆症患者也起到了同样的作用，该研究因其益处似乎显而易见而提前停止。

If regulators agree, the drug could become the first treatment specifically for dementia-related psychosis and the first new medicine for Alzheimer’s in nearly two decades. It targets some of the most troubling symptoms that patients and caregivers face — hallucinations that often lead to anxiety, aggression and physical and verbal abuse.

如果监管机构同意，这种药物可能成为近20年来第一种专门治疗痴呆相关精神病的药物，也是第一种治疗老年痴呆症的新药。它针对的是病人和照顾者所面临的一些最令人不安的症状——经常导致焦虑、攻击性、身体和语言虐待的幻觉。

Results were disclosed Wednesday at a conference in San Diego.

周三在圣地亚哥的一个会议上公布了结果。

“This would be a very important advance,” said one independent expert, Dr. Howard Fillit, chief science officer of the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.

“这将是一个非常重要的进展，”一位独立专家，阿尔茨海默病药物发现基金会首席科学官霍华德·菲利特博士说。

Although the field is focused on finding a cure for dementia and preventing future cases, “there is a huge unmet need for better treatment” for those who have it now, said Maria Carrillo, the Alzheimer’s Association’s chief science officer.

阿尔茨海默病协会首席科学官玛丽亚·卡里略(Maria Carrillo)说，尽管这一领域的重点是寻找治疗痴呆症的方法和预防未来的病例，但对现在患有痴呆症的人来说，“对更好的治疗的巨大需求尚未得到满足”。

The drug is pimavanserin, a daily pill sold as Nuplazid by Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. It was approved for Parkinson’s-related psychosis in 2016 and is thought to work by blocking a brain chemical that seems to spur delusions.

该药名为匹马万色林(pimavanserin)，是阿卡迪亚制药公司(Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc.)以Nuplazid的名义销售的一种每日服用的药片。2016年，该药物被批准用于治疗与帕金森症相关的精神病，并被认为通过阻断一种似乎能刺激错觉的大脑化学物质发挥作用。

About 8 million Americans have dementia and studies suggest that up to 30 percent of them develop psychosis.

大约有800万美国人患有痴呆症，研究表明，其中多达30%的人患有精神病。

“It’s terrifying,” said Dr. Jeffrey Cummings of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas. “You believe that people might be trying to hurt you. You believe that people are stealing from you. You believe that your spouse is unfaithful to you. Those are the three most common false beliefs.”

“这太可怕了，”拉斯维加斯克利夫兰卢鲁沃脑健康中心的杰弗里·卡明斯博士说。“你相信人们可能会试图伤害你。你相信有人在偷你的东西。你相信你的配偶对你不忠。这是三种最常见的错误幻觉。”

Carrillo said the study was small, but the drug’s effect seemed large and it’s not known whether the federal Food and Drug Administration would want more evidence to approve a new use.

Carrillo说，这项研究规模很小，但是这种药物的效果似乎很大，目前还不清楚联邦食品和药物管理局是否需要更多的证据来批准一种新的用途。

Current anti-psychotic medicines have some major drawbacks and are not approved for dementia patients.

目前的抗精神病药物有一些主要的缺点，并没有被批准用于痴呆患者。