Efficacy of rivastigmine in dementia with Lewy bodies: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled international study

Abstract

Background Dementia with Lewy bodies is a common form of dementia in the elderly, characterised clinically by fluctuating cognitive impairment, attention deficits, Visual hallucinations, parkinsonism, and other neuropsychiatric features. Neuroleptic medication can provoke severe sensitivity reactions in patients with dementia of this type. Many deficits in cholinergic neurotransmission are seen in the brain of patients with Lewy-body dementia; therefore, drugs enhancing central cholinergic function represent a rationally-based therapeutic approach to this disorder. Rivastigmine, a cholinesterase inhibitor, was tested in a group of clinically characterised patients with Lewy-body dementia.