Lethicin in the Treatment of Alzheimer's Disease

To the Editor. —Alzheimer's disease has been associated with a defect in cortical cholinergic pathways,¹⁻⁴and several reports have appeared within the past five years concerning the use of lecithin, a cholinergic agonist, in treating the associated symptoms.⁵⁻¹⁰With the exception of a recent report by Dysken et al,¹¹most studies have been of a preliminary nature, lacking adequate controls for the duration of the illness, age of the subjects, placebo effects, dose-dependent effects, and plasma choline levels. Mild improvements in learning and retention have been observed, but in none of the studies reported to date, to our knowledge, has lecithin been shown to alter substantially behavior or the course of the disease. We report the results of a six-month study in which lecithin (Phospholipon-100) (95% phosphatidylcholine) and a placebo were administered in a double-blind crossover protocol to 13 patients with Alzheimer's disease. Patients and Methods. —Seven