Clinical trials of a nutritional drink aimed at improving cognitive function in Alzheimer’s disease patients is being lead by Rush University Medical Center.
This nutritional drink in this Alzheimer’s clinical trial is thought to have an ability to improve overall cognitive performance in Alzheimer’s patients with mild to moderate forms of the degenerative brain disease.
Following on recent clinical studies conducted in Europe, where the nutritional drink known as Souvenaid was shown to have improve verbal recall in Alzheimer’s patients during a three-month study. The current study at Rush University wanted to determine if Souvenaid could slow the degeneration of memory in those people with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.
The European results showed that Souvenaid improved verbal recall in patients suffering from mild Alzheimer’s disease. Of the 225 patients studied, patients suffering from mild Alzheimer’s were randomly divided into two groups, with one being given Souvenaid and the other a placebo.
The current study will see 500 patients with both mild and moderate Alzheimer’s disease on FDA approved Alzheimer’s medications will take part in the double-blind study. Half of these patients will take 4 ounces of Souvenaid for 24 weeks and the other have will take a placebo similar in flavor, color and composition.
Researchers will test whether the Alzheimer’s patients show improvements in cognitive and functional performance in areas such as memory, language, attention/concentration, executive functioning, information processing and recall.
If Souvenaid is shown to be effective at improving cognitive function , this nutritional drink may be used to supplement Alzheimer’s disease treatments in the near future.
