A study reported in the journal BioMed Central BMC Neurology showed that 12 patients improved language recall shortly after treatment with Enbrel, or etanercept, a rheumatoid arthritis drug. The study conducted by Dr. Edward Tobinick, director of the Institute for Neurological Research, was conducted in house without any of the controls usually seen in clinical trials.
The study is limited because people knew they were getting the drug and the result could be explained by the "placebo" effect. It is not unusual for Alzheimer's patients to show improvement in open-label studies.
One has to wonder about Dr. Tobinck's real motives since he charges $10,000-$40,000 per treatment. An outrageous price in my opinion. He does hold several patents on a special method of injecting the drug into the neck.
Hopefully we will see independent studies by scientist without financial interest to determine if this treatment should move forward and if it really works.
It should be noted that this unapproved treatment is not supported nor endorsed by Amgen. You can read the reaction they posted on the Amgen website.
If you want to view a video of the results on patients after the etanercept injection follow this link...Video
Other articles on this topic:
Etanercept (Enbrel) in Action, see Alzheimer's patient's memory come alive (Video)
Video Released Of Rapid Alzheimer's Improvement After New Immune-based Treatment
BioMed Central
Reversing Symptoms of Alzheimer's?
Great info - thanks for posting for our members! Amazing that this is even considered for real. But... there is a school of thought out there that follows any research is good research as it keeps people moving in the right direction. My take - in this case it makes us take pause a bit. Ensuring that what caregivers and loved ones know about these kinds of studies is so important. Maybe there is a legit study in the works with this kind of medication. If there wasn't maybe there will be!
For more information on Alzheimer's research, check out the Web Reources page on our site. It lists links to several of the national organizations focused on this disease and will have additional informaiton on research and studies in the works.
All the best, sue