Effects of Galantamine Versus Donepezil on Sleep in Patients With Mild to Moderate Alzheimer Disease and Their Caregivers: A Double-Blind, Head-to-Head, Randomized Pilot Study

Objective:
To examine the effects of galantamine and donepezil on patient and caregiver sleep.
Methods:
In this randomized, 8-week, double-blind, parallel-group, multicenter, pilot comparison of galantamine and donepezil, safety and efficacy data were collected. Objective and subjective changes in sleep of patients (N = 63) and their caregivers were measured. Clinicians assessed changes in patient global function. As this was a pilot study, only descriptive statistics are presented.
Results:
In general, neither galantamine nor donepezil, at stable doses, were associated with decrements in actigraphy sleep measurements. However, mean scores in all measures of sleep showed a tendency for minimal improvements in galantamine-treated patients and minimal decrements in the donepezil-treated patients. The same tendencies were present in caregiver sleep measures. Global function…

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