title: Efficacy and safety of donepezil in the treatment of executive dysfunction in Parkinson disease: a pilot study.
abstract: Cognitive disturbances in Parkinson's disease (PD) are dominated by troubles in executive functions which affects to a vast majority of parkinsonian patients since the onset of the disease. A common clinical observation is that parkinsonian patients, who eventually develop dementia, exhibit subtle cognitive disturbances quite earlier. The main biochemical substrate of cognitive dysfunction in PD, even of the early dysexecutive syndrome, might be a cholinergic deficiency. The aim of this pilot study was to determine the efficacy and safety of donepezil in the treatment of 10 patients with PD and dysexecutive alterations without dementia. All the items of the Clinical Global Impression were significantly improved. An improvement on both the modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and DIGIT Span was found. Parkinsonism remained unchanged during the study. Only 1 out of 10 patients experienced transient and mild gastrointestinal side effects. This study suggests that donepezil may be useful in the treatment of the dysexecutive syndrome associated with PD.
authors.affiliation: Centro de Investigación Parkinson, Policlínica Gipuzkoa, San Sebastián, Spain. glinazasoro@terra.es
authors.forename: Gurutz
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Linazasoro
authors.forename: Asier
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lasa
authors.forename: Nadége
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Van Blercom
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000077265:Donepezil; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007189:Indans / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D018697:Nootropic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D010880:Piperidines / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects*; D011788:Quality of Life
chemical_list: D007189:Indans; D018697:Nootropic Agents; D010880:Piperidines; D000077265:Donepezil