Some benefits from donepezil in Alzheimer disease

There is moderate‐quality evidence that people with mild, moderate or severe dementia due to AD treated for periods of 12 or 24 weeks with donepezil experience small benefits in cognitive function, activities of daily living and clinician‐rated global clinical state. There is no evidence of a difference between donepezil and placebo for patient total healthcare resource utilisation. Benefits on donepezil 23mg/day are no greater than with 10mg/day, and benefits on the 10mg/day dose are marginally greater than on the 5mg/day dose, but the rates of withdrawal and of adverse events before the end of treatment are higher with the higher doses.