KARLSRUHE, 31 January 2007.

A large placebo-controlled study has demonstrated the efficacy of EGb 761® in typical dementia patients. In addition to cognitive impairment these patients also show neuropsychiatric symptoms such as depressed mood, anxiety, irritability and aggression. Such patients represent the overwhelming majority of Alzheimer's sufferers in normal clinical practice.

During the observation period of 22 weeks, EGb 761® improved cognitive functioning, neuropsychiatric symptoms as well as daily activities of the patients. Furthermore, not only the patients themselves benefited, but the distress of caregivers was also relieved.

The randomized, double-blind study included 395 outpatients with mild to moderate dementia with neuropsychiatric features. Patients received either 240 mg of the patented Ginkgo biloba extract EGb 761® or placebo daily. The primary outcome measure in the cognitive domain was the SKT test battery, an internationally validated rating scale for dementia. In the neuropsychiatric domain the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) and the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD) were applied.

The patients treated with EGb 761® showed improvement throughout the study with a highly significant advantage of 4.5 points in the SKT compared to those receiving placebo. Similar improvements were found in all other applied tests.

A marked 35% decrease in distress was observed in caregivers of the active treatment group. This may reflect both the patient’s improvement in behavioural and psychiatric symptoms as well as the reduction in dependency with respect to activities of daily living. EGb 761® was also very well tolerated.

„This study shows that EGb 761® is effective in the treatment of dementia” says Prof. O. Napryeyenko, principal investigator of the study. „In patients exhibiting the full range of cognitive and non-cognitive features of dementia, EGb 761® improves cognitive functioning as well as neuropsychiatric symptoms and activities of daily living. It is thus providing relief not only to the patients, but also for their care-giving relatives.”

The results of this study support the findings of several earlier studies including a one-year US trial by Le Bars et al. published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) [2].

EGb 761® is a patented Ginkgo biloba extract developed and manufactured by the Dr. Willmar Schwabe Company, Karlsruhe, Germany. It is widely recognized as the best researched phytomedicine world-wide and is available in more than 80 countries.

For additional information please contact:
Dr. Jochen Muehlhoff
Dr. Willmar Schwabe GmbH & Co. KG
Willmar-Schwabe-Str. 4
76227 Karlsruhe
Phone: +49 721 4005 216
Email: jochen.muehlhoff@schwabe.de

[1] Napryeyenko O, Borzenko I. Ginkgo biloba Special Extract in Dementia with Neuropsychiatric Features. A randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical trial. Arzneimittel-Forschung (Drug Research) 2007;57(1):4–11.
[2] Le Bars PL, Katz MM, Berman N, Itil TM, Freedman AM, Schatzberg AF. A placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized trial of an extract of Ginkgo biloba for dementia. JAMA 1997, 278(16):1327-32.