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Common drug may slow brain disease

来源：发布时间：2008-11-17

　British doctors are to launch a major clinical trial to investigate whether a common anti-Depression drug could be a cheap and effective treatment for the devastating condition motor neurone disease.
　　The trial, which is due to start in January, will follow more than 200 patients with motor neurone disease over 18 months to see if those given daily lithium pills live longer. Lithium is already licensed for treating manic Depression and other mental disorders, and is extremely cheap, costing just 48p for a packet of 20 pills.
　　The £1m trial follows the publication in February of a small study by Italian researchers which suggested that lithium could slow the progression of the disease dramatically. The study sparked a surge of interest in the drug among online patient groups, and some GPs now offer lithium "off-label", despite widespread uncertainty as to whether it works.
　　Nigel Leigh, director of the motor neurone disease care centre at King's college London, who will lead the trial, said: "It is our responsibility and duty to carry out this trial because we have to consider every lead seriously, and where there is real uncertainty, resolve it swiftly. The results of the Italian trial are too dramatic to ignore."
　　Motor neurone disease destroys nerves in the brain that control movement, leaving patients locked in a failing body. There is currently no cure and half die within 14 months of being diagnosed. In the UK, there are about 5,000 people with the condition. Stephen Hawking, the 66-year-old Cambridge physicist, was diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease 45 years ago. He is now almost completely paralysed, although, as with most other patients, his mind remains active.
　　Doctors are unsure precisely how lithium works, but its effectiveness as an anti-Depression treatment is thought to be linked to its ability to slow down electrical activity in brain cells.
　　Doctors are now recruiting patients who experienced their first symptoms of the disease within the past six months to three years. Results from the trial are expected within two years. It will be considered a success if patients who are given the drug live 20% longer than those who receive a placebo. "It would be very nice if we show lithium arrests the disease but we're not expecting that. We're hoping for a three- to six-month increase in lifespan over the 18-month trial," said Leigh.
　　If the drug is effective, it could be given to thousands of patients immediately. But doctors advised patients against taking it until the trial was over. Taken unsupervised, it could put them at risk of side-effects including tremors, stiffness, confusion, kidney failure and damage to the thyroid gland, they warned.

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