Treating dementia patients with vascular lesions with donepezil: a preliminary analysis.
Sixteen patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 15 patients with vascular dementia (VaD) associated with subcortical white matter lesions or subcortical cardiovascular accidents (CVAs) were treated with donepezil for 16 weeks. Within-group analyses for the AD group revealed significant improvement on some tests of working memory, and marginal improvement on the Mini-Mental State Examination and on tests of immediate free recall from a serial list-learning task. Identical analyses for the VaD group revealed substantial gains on tests of working memory and delayed recognition memory. These data suggest that medication such as donepezil may act to improve the working memory deficits known to be associated with dementia patients with subcortical vascular lesions. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed.
Thomas
David A
DA
Penn NeuroCare, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Libon
David J
DJ
Ledakis
George E
GE
D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000473:pathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D003704:Dementia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology*; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology; D000077265:Donepezil; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007189:Indans / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000187:drug effects; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000187:drug effects; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D018697:Nootropic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010880:Piperidines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D020521:Stroke / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology
D007189:Indans; D018697:Nootropic Agents; D010880:Piperidines; D000077265:Donepezil