title: Quetiapine treatment of psychotic symptoms and aggressive behavior in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies: a case series.
abstract: The authors describe here the clinical outcomes of quetiapine treatment in nine patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) who manifested psychotic symptoms and aggressive behavior. Patients who had a score of 3 or higher on any of the three items of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI), agitation/aggression, hallucinations, and delusions, were given quetiapine 25-75 mg/day. Each patient's clinical status was assessed at baseline and after 4 and 8 weeks of treatment by using the NPI, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and Simpson-Angus Scale (S-A). Five of nine patients had a positive response with a decline of more than 50% in the sum of scores for three items of the NPI. The other three patients withdrew from quetiapine treatment due to somnolence or orthostatic hypotension. The remaining patient exhibited no clinically significant change in the NPI score. The S-A scale was not affected by quetiapine treatment in any patient. These findings suggest that quetiapine may be effective in treating psychotic symptoms and disruptive behavior in some patients with DLB. Further placebo-controlled, randomized, double-blind trials with this drug are needed to confirm this observation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, Akita University School of Medicine, 1-1-1, Hondo, Akita City, 010-8543, Japan. hito_takahashi@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Keizo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Takio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sugita
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Higuchi
authors.forename: Tetsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimizu
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000374:Aggression / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D003987:Dibenzothiazepines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D020961:Lewy Body Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D000069348:Quetiapine Fumarate
chemical_list: D003987:Dibenzothiazepines; D000069348:Quetiapine Fumarate