Mild to moderately severe dementia with idiopathic Parkinson's disease

Active Ingredient: Rivastigmine

Indication for Rivastigmine

Population group: only adults (18 years old or older)
Therapeutic intent: Curative procedure

Symptomatic treatment of mild to moderately severe dementia in patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease.

For this indication, competent medicine agencies globally authorize below treatments:

1.5 mg twice daily for two weeks and thereafter 1.5-6 mg twice daily

Dosage regimens

Oral, 1.5 milligrams rivastigmine, 2 times daily to meals, over the duration of 2 weeks. Afterwards, oral, between 1.5 milligrams rivastigmine and 6 milligrams rivastigmine, 2 times daily to meals. The maximum allowed total dose is 6 milligrams rivastigmine daily.

Detailed description

Initial dose

1.5 mg twice a day.

Dose titration

The starting dose is 1.5 mg twice a day. If this dose is well tolerated after a minimum of two weeks of treatment, the dose may be increased to 3 mg twice a day. Subsequent increases to 4.5 mg and then 6 mg twice a day should also be based on good tolerability of the current dose and may be considered after a minimum of two weeks of treatment at that dose level.

If adverse reactions (e.g. nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain or loss of appetite), weight decrease or worsening of extrapyramidal symptoms (e.g. tremor) in patients with dementia associated with Parkinson’s disease are observed during treatment, these may respond to omitting one or more doses. If adverse reactions persist, the daily dose should be temporarily reduced to the previous well-tolerated dose or the treatment may be discontinued.

Maintenance dose

The effective dose is 3 to 6 mg twice a day; to achieve maximum therapeutic benefit patients should be maintained on their highest well tolerated dose. The recommended maximum daily dose is 6 mg twice a day.

Maintenance treatment can be continued for as long as a therapeutic benefit for the patient exists. Therefore, the clinical benefit of rivastigmine should be reassessed on a regular basis, especially for patients treated at doses less than 3 mg twice a day. If after 3 months of maintenance dose treatment the patient’s rate of decline in dementia symptoms is not altered favourably, the treatment should be discontinued. Discontinuation should also be considered when evidence of a therapeutic effect is no longer present.

Individual response to rivastigmine cannot be predicted. However, a greater treatment effect was seen in Parkinson’s disease patients with moderate dementia. Similarly a larger effect was observed in Parkinson’s disease patients with visual hallucinations. Treatment effect has not been studied in placebo-controlled trials beyond 6 months.

Re-initiation of therapy

If treatment is interrupted for more than three days, it should be re-initiated at 1.5 mg twice daily. Dose titration should then be carried out as described above.

Dosage considerations

Rivastigmine should be administered twice a day, with morning and evening meals.

Active ingredient

Rivastigmine

Rivastigmine is an acetyl- and butyrylcholinesterase inhibitor of the carbamate type, thought to facilitate cholinergic neurotransmission by slowing the degradation of acetylcholine released by functionally intact cholinergic neurones. Thus, rivastigmine may have an ameliorative effect on cholinergic-mediated cognitive deficits in dementia associated with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

Read more about Rivastigmine

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