Clinical studies have had conflicting findings, so we conducted a systematic review and pooled all the available data to assess the effects of latrepirdine. We looked for studies to help us answer this question by conducting a literature search in June 2014. We combined data from seven studies with a total of 1697 patients with AD. We were unable to conclude whether latrepirdine has any beneficial effect on cognition and function in people with AD due to variations in the results between studies and because the effects we estimated were too imprecise. However, the evidence suggests that latrepirdine may have a positive effect in treating behavioural symptoms, and that it is not associated with adverse effects in people with AD. Although seven studies have been done, data from only six studies were available and most of the studies were not fully reported. We contacted the investigators for additional data but received no response.
Authors' conclusions:
Our meta-analysis is limited by the small number of studies, imprecision, inconsistencies between studies and likelihood of bias. Nevertheless, the evidence to date suggests that while not associated with an increased risk of adverse events compared with placebo, there is no effect of latrepirdine on cognition
and function in mild-to-moderate AD patients, though there appears to
be a modest benefit for behaviour. Further studies should investigate
the potential benefit of latrepirdine on neuropsychiatric symptoms in
AD.