Efficacy, Safety, and Tolerability of Switching from Oral Cholinesterase Inhibitors to Rivastigmine Transdermal Patch with 1-Step Titration in Patients with Mild to Moderate Alzheimer's Disease: A 24-Week, Open-Label, Multicenter Study in Japan.

Background: Few studies have investigated treatment options for patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) showing a poor response to oral cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) in Japan.

Objective: To investigate the efficacy and safety of switching from oral ChEIs to rivastigmine transdermal patch in patients with AD.

Methods: In this multicenter, open-label, phase IV study in outpatient clinics in Japan, patients with mild-moderate AD who had a poor response to or experienced difficulty in continuing donepezil or galantamine were switched to rivastigmine transdermal patch (5 cm; loaded dose 9 mg, delivery rate 4.

Efficacy of rivastigmine transdermal therapy on low food intake in patients with Alzheimer's disease: The Attitude Towards Food Consumption in Alzheimer's Disease Patients Revive with Rivastigmine Effects study.

Aim: Most patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) experience poor food intake and/or loss of appetite, which accelerates cognitive impairment. Several reports have shown that rivastigmine improves appetite in AD patients. The present study investigated the efficacy of a rivastigmine transdermal patch for the treatment of low food intake in AD patients.

Correlation between cognition and symptomatic severity in patients with late-life somatoform disorders.

Objectives: Various aging associated factors, such as functional decline, psychosocial problems, and cognitive dysfunction, are risk factors for somatoform disorders (SDs) in the elderly. The aim of the present study was to evaluate how cognition is correlated with the severity of late-life SDs from a neuropsychological viewpoint.

Methods: Fifty-three patients over 60 years of age who had been diagnosed as having SDs were examined in this study.

Correlation between both morphologic and functional changes and anxiety in Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Although anxiety symptoms are often observed in Alzheimer's disease (AD), little attention has been paid to this symptom compared with other neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Methods: Twenty-six patients with mild AD underwent both magnetic resonance imaging and single photon emission tomography with technetium-99m ethyl cysteinate dimer. Neuropsychiatric symptoms were evaluated using the Behavioral Pathology in Alzheimer's Disease Scale (Behave-AD).

Mirtazapine improves visual hallucinations in Parkinson's disease: a case report.

Psychotic symptoms often occur as a complication in Parkinson's disease patients, and a set of criteria for Parkinson's disease with psychosis (PDPsy) has been established. Among these criteria, hallucinations are one of the specific symptoms, with visual hallucinations being the most common. While atypical antipsychotic agents are often used for the treatment of PDPsy, adverse effects, including extrapyramidal symptoms, often hinder its continuation or tolerance.

Managing abnormal eating behaviours in frontotemporal lobar degeneration patients with topiramate.

Abnormal eating behaviours are specific to frontotemporal lobar degeneration and increase caregiver burden. Topiramate, an anticonvulsant, suppresses cravings for alcohol and other substances and is a potential treatment for binge eating. However, there are few reports on topiramate efficacy for abnormal eating behaviours in frontotemporal lobar degeneration patients.

Longitudinal Changes in the Government-Certified Index Stage and Requisite Costs for Long-Term Care Insurance System among the Community-Dwelling Demented Elderly in Japan.

Background. A new public long-term care (LTC) insurance was launched in 2000 in Japan. However, there have been few studies involving factors that increase LTC costs of demented subjects; no follow-up studies involving the Government-Certified Index (GCI) and requisite costs related to the causes of dementia.

What is the association between depression and Alzheimer's disease?

Depression and dementia, in particular Alzheimer's disease (AD), are critically important issues in the mental health of old age. Both conditions apparently reduce quality of life and increase the impairment of activities of daily living for elderly persons. AD usually shows poor prognosis owing to progressive neuronal degeneration, while depression is basically reversible.

Identification of high-risk dementia cohorts in a community sample of Japanese elderly.

Aim: The aim of this study was to develop a simple diagnostic procedure for subjects at high risk of developing dementia using the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), which is applicable to community-based activities.

Methods: This study divided 252 community-dwelling elderly with a CDR score of 0.5 into two groups based on the presence or absence of cognitive decline within the previous one year of the baseline, as assessed by a semi-structured interview.

Donepezil in the treatment of patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia and is characterized by an insidious onset and slow deterioration in cognition, activities of daily living (ADL), mood stability and social functioning. The cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs), developed based on the cholinergic hypothesis, are currently considered to be the best established treatment for AD, although the significant advances in the symptomatic pharmacotherapy of AD may be followed by disease-modification treatments. Donepezil is a mixed competitive and noncompetitive acetylcholinesterase inhibitor that shows a relative selectivity for acetylcholinesterase inhibitor compared with butyrylcholinesterase.

Determinants of excessive daytime sleepiness in a French community-dwelling elderly population.

Epidemiological studies have suggested that excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) is associated with depression, but the association between EDS and other psychiatric disorders has not been investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate the association of EDS with a wide range of psychiatric disorders and health-related conditions in the elderly population. Two thousand two hundred and fifty-nine non-institutionalised persons aged 65-years and over randomly recruited from the Montpellier district, France, completed the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS).

Sleep and depression.

Background: Of all the psychiatric disorders associated with insomnia, depression is the most common. It has been estimated that 90% of patients with depression complain about sleep quality. Since the first reports of short rapid eye movement (REM) latency in depressed patients and of the effect of sleep deprivation on depression in the 1970s, numerous sleep studies have provided extensive observations and theoretical hypotheses concerning the etiology and pathophysiology of depression.