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Therapeutic advances: riluzole for the treatment of motor neurone disease
Author(s) -
Clark W.,
Kendall M. J.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of clinical pharmacy and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.622
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1365-2710
pISSN - 0269-4727
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2710.1996.tb00035.x
Subject(s) - riluzole , amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , medicine , motor neurone disease , quality of life (healthcare) , adverse effect , disease , intensive care medicine , nursing
Summary Amyotrophic laterial sclerosis is a fatal neurogenerative disorder, for which only symptomatic treatment was previously available. Riluzole was recently launched in the U. S. A. and Europe. This is the first drug to produce a modest increase in survival (≅ 3 months) in patients with this disease. Unfortunately, treatment causes a number of side‐effects of which asthenia is particularly troublesome. Between 10 and 20 per cent of patients can be expected to withdraw from treatment due to these adverse effects. Data on the real time survival advantage and quality of life that can be expected whilst on treatment are needed to identify the place of riluzole in the management of this distressing disease.