Dementia Japan 21: 225-234, 2007

Recent topics on the treatment of Alzheimer's disease including the severe stage

Akira Homma

Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology

    In August, 2007, use of 10 mg of donepezil to treat patients with severe stage of AD was approved in Japan. In the manuscript, current status on the symptomatic treatment of AD with ChEIs and memantine were reviewed based on the recent meta-analysis of the efficacy and adverse events of both drugs. Also, outlines of the recent representative RCTs of ChEIs and memantine were intoroduced. It was suggested that not all results of them were positive, and more confirmatory studies in patients exclusively with severe AD were required. Lastly, RCTs on MCI were described to indicate the direction of future RCTs with ChEIs to treat MCI.

Address correspondence to Dr. Akira Homma, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology (35-2, Sakae-chou, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo, 173-0015, Japan)