Introduction Dementia is a neurodegenerative disease that affects more than 45 million patients worldwide. Treatment options for dementia include lecanemab for mild cognitive impairment, acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, which are mainly used for mild to moderate dementia, as well as N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists for patients with severe dementia or certain antipsychotics. Pharmaceutical approaches are limited by potential side effects. To alleviate symptoms or at least slightly improve cognitive functions, additional herbal medicines (HM) such as Ginkgo biloba and non-pharmacological approaches, e.g., behavioral, exercise, music, and reminiscence therapy, yoga, tai chi, or acupuncture, have been used with heterogeneous results. Helleborus niger , a plant containing multiple bioactive compounds such as ecdysteroids and bufadienolide, is used clinically for its immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antioxidant properties. In a German hospital specializing in geriatric patients, an association between the subcutaneous application of Helleborus niger 12x and changes in dementia was observed. Methods Retrospective study on the effect of subcutaneous application of Helleborus niger 12x for an average of 3 weeks in patients with dementia. Eligible patients were aged ≥ 60 years and treated at the Humboldt Clinic in Bad Steben, Bavaria, Germany, with two different treatment regimens: standard care with conventional medication alone (control group, CG) vs. standard care with conventional medication plus Helleborus niger 12x preparations (Helleborus group, HG). The primary outcome was the between-group difference in pre-post (T0 vs. T1) changes in the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). Secondary outcomes were pre-post changes in the Dementia Detection test (DemTect), the Shulman clock-drawing test (CDT) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS). Results For the primary outcome, there was a statistically significant difference in MMSE between the groups ( p 0.001; d = 1.5) at T1 with significantly higher values in HG compared to CG. Regarding the secondary outcomes, significantly improved values were seen in HG compared to CG for DemTect, CDT and GDS with medium to high effect sizes. Conclusion The study gives preliminary evidence that Helleborus niger 12x applied subcutaneously might improve cognitive function in patients with dementia at least during the three-week administration. Further randomized, blinded studies with longer follow-up are needed to confirm preliminary results. Clinical trial registration Identifier, DRKS00033972.
Vagedes et al. (Wed,) studied this question.