Effects of donepezil on central processing speed and attentional measures in Parkinson's disease with dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies.
BACKGROUND
We examined attention-enhancing effects of the cholinesterase inhibitor donepezil in Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) by means of open label study.


METHODS
22 DLBs and 23 PDDs were assessed over 20 weeks using the Cognitive Drug Research Computerized Attentional Tasks. We examined how much closer our patients moved towards being normal for their age by comparing them to a non-demented elderly control sample (n = 183, aged 71-75 years).


RESULTS
Donepezil treatment improved power of attention, continuity of attention and reaction time variability. The deficit in responses was moved towards normal by 38 and 56% for power of attention and 22 and 10% for continuity of attention in PDD and DLB, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Improvements in attention were found with donepezil in PDD and DLB.
Rowan
Elise
E
Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle General Hospital, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
McKeith
Ian G
IG
Saxby
Brian K
BK
O'Brien
John T
JT
Burn
David
D
Mosimann
Urs
U
Newby
Jane
J
Daniel
Sarah
S
Sanders
Jonathan
J
Wesnes
Keith
K
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects; D003704:Dementia / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D000077265:Donepezil; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007189:Indans / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D020961:Lewy Body Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D008297:Male; D008606:Mental Processes / Q000187:drug effects; D008875:Middle Aged; D018697:Nootropic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010880:Piperidines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D012016:Reference Values; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors; D007189:Indans; D018697:Nootropic Agents; D010880:Piperidines; D000077265:Donepezil