[The effect of donepezil in comparison with conventional treatment on cognitive functioning and the performance of the patient in a prospective cohort of patients with Alzheimer's disease treated in routine clinical practice in Spain]

Abstract

Aims: Our aim was to perform a secondary analysis of a 12-month-long, non-blind, multi-centre prospective cost-of-illness study. The analysis assessed the effect of donepezil on cognitive functioning and the performance of patients with possible or probable Alzheimer's disease, compared to that of other drugs for dementia.

Patients and methods: A sample of 700 patients took part in the study (76.8 ± 6.6 years of age, 67.3% females): 600 (31.4% drug-naive) received donepezil and 100 (9% drug-naive) were given other drugs for dementia.

Results: The mean variations corrected by the baseline values and the centre of the total scores on the Folstein minimental test, the clinical dementia rating and Blessed dementia rating scales at 12 months were significantly lower in patients treated with donepezil: -1.23 ± 3.41 versus -2.26 ± 3.07 (p = 0.006), 0.20 ± 0.68 versus 0.39 ± 1.03 (p = 0.014) and 1.28 ± 3.31 versus 2.04 ± 2.84 (p = 0.027), respectively.

Conclusions: This secondary analysis shows that the deterioration in the cognitive functioning and performance of patients with the passage of time is slower with donepezil than with other drugs for dementia in routine medical practice. Since these results were observed in a post hoc analysis, formal prospective clinical trials should be conducted to confirm these findings.