In addition, a group of AD patients (20 subjects) was established as

a control group who continued receiving psychotropic drugs, and whose background characteristics were consistent with those of the patients in the group that received memantine (18 subjects). The patients were receiving psychotropic drugs before they received memantine. Furthermore, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical all of the subjects who participated in this study were inpatients whose treatment compliance had been confirmed each time by nurse or caregiver, and whose treatment compliance was thus assured. They were required to be symptomatically stable, as judged by the treating psychiatrist, to be able to complete all of the clinical measures. The study was an open-labeled, flexible-dose, naturalistic observational trial of AD patients undergoing the usual care and who required a change in their medication because of persistent symptoms or troublesome side effects. The control group had persistent symptoms or side effects. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Patients had high scores in the neuropsychiatric inventory (NPI), even though they were considered stable.

However, there patients could not be considered refractory to psychotropic drugs. Only patients or family (caregivers) who had provided voluntary informed consent in writing to participate in this study upon receiving a full explanation of the purpose and method of the study were enrolled, while patient EPO906 confidentiality was afforded all due consideration, as Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical were ethical considerations. Therapy method Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Subjects received memantine in addition to their previous therapeutic medications. Subjects were given an initial dose of memantine 5 mg in addition to their previous therapeutic medications, and the memantine dose was increased by 5 mg increments at 2-week intervals in consideration of safety. After 6 weeks, the memantine dosage was increased as necessary to optimize

the dose, and wherever possible the dosages of psychotropic drugs were reduced. Subjects were prescribed memantine within the dose range of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 10–20 mg/day. The psychotropic equivalents calculation table of Inagaki and Inada was used as a guideline for calculating psychotropic equivalents [Inagaki and Inada, 2006, 2012] when calculating PAK6 the baseline to postdose changes in the dosages of the concomitant psychotropic drugs, and the subjects’ daily dosages were calculated in terms of risperidone or diazepam equivalents. Assessment methods The following clinical assessments were performed both at baseline and at 16 weeks by the psychiatrist who was providing the actual therapy. The outcome measures assessed were BPSD and cognitive function. BPSD was assessed using the NPI [Cummings et al. 1994] and cognitive function was assessed using the mini-mental examination (MMSE) [Folstein et al. 1975]. Statistical analysis The Wilcoxon signed rank sum test was used to analyze efficacy and changes in the dosages of concomitantly used psychotropic drugs in memantine therapy.