A pilot study of clonidine plus physostigmine in Alzheimer's disease.

To assess the feasibility of one approach to combined cholinergic/noradrenergic treatment in Alzheimer's disease, ten patients were enrolled in a 2-week placebo-controlled study of oral physostigmine plus clonidine. The Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS) was used as the primary outcome measure. Neither physostigmine alone, nor the combination of physostigmine plus clonidine, was associated with a statistically significant improvement for the group. Three patients did show an improvement of at least 4 points on the total ADAS score with the drug combination. The implications of these results for treatment strategies are discussed.