Study Correlates Riluzole With Longer Survival

A study of 148 people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) who took riluzole (Rilutek), a type of drug known as a glutamate inhibitor, and 327 who didn’t, supports previous findings that the medication confers a survival benefit.

Douglas Mitchell and colleagues at Preston Hospital in the UK, who published their findings in June in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, found the median time from the first ALS symptom to death in those who didn’t take riluzole was 2.25 years; in those who took riluzole, it was 3.07 years.