Affiliations: Department of Neurology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Science, Okayama, Japan
Correspondence:
[*]
Correspondence to: Professor Koji Abe, Department ofNeurology, Okayama University Graduate School of
Medicine and Dentistry, 2-5-1 Shikata-cho, Okayama 700-8558, Japan. Tel.: +8186 235 7365; Fax: +81 86 235 7368;
kmatsuzono51@ gmail.com
Abstract: Background/objective: There are few reports on the effects of anti-Alzheimer’s disease (AD) drugs on older AD patients, and possible differences based on gender in a real world setting. Methods: “Okayama Late Dementia Study (OLDS)” is a retrospective clinical cohort study focusing on older AD patients (n = 373; age≥75 years) treated with monotherapy donepezil (n = 55), galantamine (n = 222), rivastigmine (n = 63), or memantine (n = 33). The patients were evaluated as an entire group and separated by gender, using seven batteries for dementia assessment at baseline and at 3, 6, and 12 months of drug therapy. Results: All four drugs preserved cognitive and affective functions until 12 months, except for Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) with memantine ( *
p < 0.05 versus baseline). Donepezil monotherapy significantly improved Hasegawa Dementia Rating Scale-Revised (HDS-R) at 3 months ( *
p < 0.05), and memantine (3 and 6 months, *
p < 0.05) and rivastigmine (3 months, **
p < 0.01) improved Abe’s Behavior and Psychological Symptom of Dementia Score (ABS), respectively. Activities of daily living (ADL) became significantly worse with galantamine at 12 months ( *
p < 0.05). Male Mini-Mental State Examination scores became worse at 12 months with donepezil ( *
p < 0.05), as did female Geriatric Depression Scale scores at 6 months ( *
p < 0.05). Male HDS-R and ABS scores were preserved in the galantamine group until 12 months. Female ABS scores with memantine improved at 6 months ( *
p < 0.05), while male ADL scores became worse with rivastigmine at 12 months ( *
p < 0.05). Conclusion: OLDS revealed that anti-AD drugs were effective even for older AD patients, and the clinical benefits of each drug showed a small difference with regard to gender.
Keywords: Activities of daily living, affective function, Alzheimer’s disease, cognitive function, gender difference, late elder patients
