Dementia is a chronic, progressive brain disease that may involve a number of symptoms, including memory loss and changes in personality, behavior, judgment, attention span, language and thought. The most common type of dementia is Alzheimer's disease. Over time, patients with Alzheimer's disease may lose ability to perform daily tasks related to personal care (for example bathing, dressing, eating) and may be unable to handle money or travel to familiar places. The term mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is used to describe individuals who have memory impairments suggestive of early dementia, but do not yet meet the criteria for Alzheimer's disease. Individuals with MCI are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than normal elderly patients. Individuals with MCI who completed 1 of 2 previous double-blind studies with galantamine may participate in this follow-up study if they have not progressed to dementia. They will receive open-label galantamine for 12 months and will be evaluated after 2, 6 and 12 months of treatment. Safety evaluations (incidence of adverse events, ECGs, physical examinations, laboratory tests) will be performed throughout the study. Effectiveness will be assessed after 12 months of treatment (by using standardized tests and rating scales (Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale: cognitive/MCI version [ADAS-Cog/MCI], Clinical Dementia Rating [CDR] and CDR-Sum of the Boxes [CDR-SB]). Health status will be assessed using the Health Survey portion of the Short-Form 36 (SF-36) and the use of health and social care resources will be assessed using a resource-use questionnaire. The enrolled individuals may participate in an optional portion of the study in which their genetic material is analyzed to see if contains something that would affect the way galantamine is used by their bodies. Galantamine 8 or 12 milligrams (mg) by mouth twice daily for 12 months. Dose will start at 4 mg twice daily and be gradually increased to final dose; 12 mg twice daily dose may be decreased to 8 mg twice daily based upon tolerability
The purpose of this follow-up study is to assess the long-term safety and tolerability of galantamine in individuals with mild cognitive impairment who participated in a previous study with galantamine