title: Effects of donepezil on sleep disturbances in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies: An open-label study with actigraphy.
abstract: We investigated whether donepezil, a cholinesterase inhibitor, can be used to treat sleep disturbances in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB). Sleep disturbances were evaluated with the sleep disturbances item of the Neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI) and an actigraph in 16 DLB patients and 24 normal elderly control (NC) subjects. The presence/absence of nine kinds of sleep symptoms, such as dream enactment, were also evaluated in the DLB patients. The DLB patients were then given 5mg/day donepezil for 14 weeks and evaluated again. Eight of the 16 DLB patients had some sleep disturbances before taking donepezil. The actigraphy data indicated that average activity count per minute in sleep (AAC), which reflects body activity at night, was significantly higher and total sleep time was significantly longer in DLB patients than in NC subjects. The NPI sleep disturbances score significantly improved and the number of DLB patients who had sleep disturbances decreased after taking donepezil. The actigraphy results indicate that the sum of all wake epochs within the sleep period, which reflects the degree of fragmented sleep, and the AAC decreased in the DLB patients after donepezil treatment. These results indicate that donepezil treatment reduced sleep disturbances in DLB patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita-City, Osaka, Japan. Electronic address: kazui@psy.med.osaka-u.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kazui
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita-City, Osaka, Japan; Department of Psychiatry, Osaka University Health Care Center, Toyonaka-City, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroyoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Adachi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita-City, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kanemoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita-City, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoshiyama
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita-City, Osaka, Japan; Department of Psychiatry, Osaka Police Hospital, Osaka-City, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Tamiki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita-City, Osaka, Japan; Department of Rehabilitation, Hyogo Prefectural Rehabilitation Hospital at Nishi-Harima, Tatsuno-City, Hyogo, Japan.
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tokumasu Nomura
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita-City, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshihisa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita-City, Osaka, Japan; Department of Neuropsychiatry, Faculty of Life Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto-City, Kumamoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Manabu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ikeda
mesh_terms: D056044:Actigraphy; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003702:Delusions / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology; D000077265:Donepezil; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007189:Indans / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D020961:Lewy Body Disease / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008609:Mental Status Schedule; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects; D010880:Piperidines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D007189:Indans; D010880:Piperidines; D000077265:Donepezil
keywords: Body activity; Cholinesterase inhibitor; Cognitive impairment; Delusions; Fragmented sleep; Neuropsychiatric inventory; Treatment