Osamu Kano, Hirono Ito, Takanori Takazawa, Yuji Kawase, Kiyoko Murata, Konosuke Iwamoto, Tetsuro Nagaoka, Takehisa Hirayama, Ken Miura, Riya Nagata, Tetsuhito Kiyozuka, Jo Aoyagi, Ryuta Sato, Teruo Eguchi, Ken Ikeda, Yasuo Iwasaki
Clinical trials have shown the benefits of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, such as donepezil and galantamine, and an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, memantine, in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, little is known regarding the effects of switching from donepezil 5 mg/day to galantamine 16 or 24 mg/day, or regarding the effects of adding memantine to established therapy compared with increasing the dose of donepezil. This report discusses two studies conducted to evaluate treatment with galantamine and memantine with respect to cognitive benefits and caregiver evaluations in patients with AD receiving donepezil 5 mg/day for more than 6 months...
2013: Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment