A Multicenter, Open-Label, 24-Week Follow-Up Study for Efficacy on Cognitive Function of Donepezil in Binswanger-Type Subcortical Vascular Dementia

Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of donepezil in patients with Binswanger type subcortical vascular dementia. Methods: Patients (n = 34, mean age = 71.8 + 7.12) with Binswanger type subcortical vascular dementia from 8 multicenter, according to clinical and neuroradiological working criteria, were selected to receive donepezil 5 mg/day (n = 2) or donepezil 10 mg/day (n = 32, after 5 mg/day) for 24 weeks. Our primary endpoints were change from baseline to weeks 12 and 24 in the Seoul Neuropsychological Screening Battery-Dementia version (SNSB-D) and the Korean version of neuropsychiatric inventory (K-NPI). Results: A total of 24 patients received donepezil completed the study (mean age = 72.0 + 7.5 K-Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE] = 21.0 + 5.1). After 12 weeks and 24 weeks, patients showed improvements in cognitive function on the SNSB-D compared baseline of 16.29 points at 12 weeks (P < .05) and 12.44 points at 24 weeks (P < .05). Significant improvements were shown in only memory domain, immediate verbal recall and delayed recall tests. Subgroup with better cognitive function (SNSB-D > 100) were more effective in frontal and memory domains than the other subgroup (SNSB-D < 100). Withdrawal rates due to adverse events were very low (4.16%). Conclusions: Donepezil-treated patients with Binswanger type subcortical vascular dementia demonstrated significant improvement in cognition compared with baseline, and donepezil was well tolerated.