title: Combination benefit of cognitive rehabilitation plus donepezil for Alzheimer's disease patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most important diseases in aging society, and non-drug therapy might be an alternative therapeutic approach. Thus, we evaluated the add-on effect of cognitive rehabilitation on AD patients under donepezil treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively analyzed 55 AD patients with a Mini-Mental State Examination score of 15-25, dividing them into two groups depending on whether they were receiving ambulatory cognitive rehabilitation (group D + R, n = 32) or not (group D, n = 23) in Kurashiki Heisei Hospital over 1 year. The present cognitive rehabilitation included physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy for 1-2 h once or twice a week.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Between group D and group D + R, there was no significant difference in baseline data, such as age, Mini-Mental State Examination score, periventricular hyperintensity on magnetic resonance imaging, deep white matter hyperintensity on magnetic resonance imaging or donepezil dose (4.1 mg/day). At 1 year later, however, the Mini-Mental State Examination score improved only in group D + R from 21.7 to 24.0 (**P < 0.001), whereas that of group D remained at 21.5 with both groups of donepezil 5.0 mg/day.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The combination of cognitive rehabilitation plus a choline esterase inhibitor donepezil showed a better effect for the cognitive function of AD patients than drug only therapy at 1 year.
authors: Department of Neurology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical science, Okayama, Japan.|Department of Neurology, Kurashiki Heisei Hospital, Kurashiki, Japan.
authors: Kosuke
authors: K
authors: Matsuzono
authors: Department of Neurology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical science, Okayama, Japan.
authors: Nozomi
authors: N
authors: Hishikawa
authors: Department of Neurology, Kurashiki Heisei Hospital, Kurashiki, Japan.
authors: Yoshiki
authors: Y
authors: Takao
authors: Department of Neurology, Kurashiki Heisei Hospital, Kurashiki, Japan.
authors: Yosuke
authors: Y
authors: Wakutani
authors: Department of Neurology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical science, Okayama, Japan.
authors: Toru
authors: T
authors: Yamashita
authors: Department of Neurology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical science, Okayama, Japan.
authors: Kentaro
authors: K
authors: Deguchi
authors: Department of Neurology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical science, Okayama, Japan.
authors: Koji
authors: K
authors: Abe
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D000077265:Donepezil; D006801:Humans; D007189:Indans / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010880:Piperidines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D002800:Cholinesterase Inhibitors; D007189:Indans; D010880:Piperidines; D000077265:Donepezil
keywords: Alzheimer's disease; cognitive function; cognitive rehabilitation; dementia; donepezil