A 6 Months, Prospective, Open-label, Observational, Non-interventional Clinical Trial to Examine the Efficacy and Safety of Donepezil (Dementis®) Administration in Patients With Dementia.

In 1906, Dr. Alois Alzheimer first described the disease that later took his name. Today, 100 years later, 24 million people worldwide suffer from Alzheimer's disease or other dementias.

The term 'dementia' is clinical and is used to describe brain disorders that cause decline in mental functions, memory first and then speech, judging and overall behavior. Alzheimer's disease is by far the most common form of dementia, followed by vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy, the frontotemporal dementias etc.

In Greece there are 141,000 patients with dementia. With increasing life expectancy, the figures are expected to increase dramatically in the future.

Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia, as well as 50-60% of patients with dementia suffer from this disease. The second most common type of dementia is vascular, ie that associated with cerebrovascular disease and is the 15-30% of all dementia cases and is most common between the ages of 60-70 years and is more common in men than women. It is estimated that 5% to 8% of people over 65 suffer from dementia, while in industrialized countries ranges at the following levels :15-25% over 85 and 32% over 90 years.

Dementia is characterized by a slow onset and progressive course. The syndrome includes disorders in general intelligence, learning and memory, problem solving, perception, judgment, executive function, language and synergy of movement, but without impairment of consciousness.

Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder with distinct clinical and histopathological features, although with variations from person to person.

In its early stages it is sometimes difficult to diagnose cognitive impairment from normal aging of the brain. With the passage of time, the continuous decline in recent memory, fluency, ability for spatial orientation ultimately restricts the autonomy regarding basic activities of daily life such as managing finances. The anxiety and depression complicate diagnosis in early stages, but gradually decline with loss of sensitivity. Intermediate stages of the disease require increasingly supervision in daily self-care activities, such as personal hygiene and clothing. In the advanced stages are usually essential nursing care in institutional context.

The severity of symptoms of the disease varies and is determined by premorbid factors such as education, gender, cultural background. Epidemiological studies have shown as protective factors against the onset of dementia, higher education, taking estrogen and anti-inflammatory drugs. On the other hand, age, family history of dementia, head injury, hypertension and Down syndrome are risk factors for developing the disease. Finally, some genetic factors appear to be protective, and other pressures to the disease.