Efficacy of donepezil treatment in Alzheimer patients with and without subcortical vascular lesions.
In a pilot study designed as a case control study the efficacy of donepezil treatment was investigated in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Patients were stratified according to radiological criteria into patients without (AD group) and with subcortical vascular lesions (AD+SVD group). Changes in cognition were assessed as the primary outcome measurement after 6 and 18 months of treatment by the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) and the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD) test battery. After 6 months, patients had improved from baseline by 0.7 points in MMSE score in the AD group and by 1.8 in the AD+SVD group. After 18 months of treatment, the AD+SVD group performed significantly worse in one CERAD subscore, whereas a deterioration in two subscores was observed in the AD group. A comparison between the 2 groups revealed that treatment did not lead to statistically significant differences between the AD and AD+SVD groups in any of CERAD parameters following 6 or 18 months of treatment. These data support previous observations that donepezil therapy is effective in AD patients with and without subcortical vascular lesions.
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Innsbruck, Austria.
Imrich
I
Blasko
Thomas
T
Bodner
Gabriele
G
Knaus
Thomas
T
Walch
Andreas
A
Monsch
Hartmann
H
Hinterhuber
Josef
J
Marksteiner
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000150:complications*; D000077265:Donepezil; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007189:Indans / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018697:Nootropic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010880:Piperidines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012042:Registries; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D007189:Indans; D018697:Nootropic Agents; D010880:Piperidines; D000077265:Donepezil