The effects of donepezil on the P300 auditory and visual cognitive evoked potentials of patients with Alzheimer's disease

Donepezil is a cholinesterase inhibitor used for the treatment of patients with mild to moderately severe Alzheimer's disease (AD). The purpose of thi s study was to determine the effect of treatment with donepezil 5 mg qd on cognitive evoked potentials (EPs) of patients with AD. Although treatment w ith donepezil did not normalize EP latencies, treatment was associated with a significant decrease in the auditory P300 latency (mean latency pretreat ment = 401.5 msec; posttreatment = 392.7 msec.; P = 0.04), and the visual P 300 latency (mean latency pretreatment = 605.7 msec; posttreatment = 580.3 msec; P = 0.04). Treatment with donepezil had no discernible effect on audi tory or visual P300 EP amplitudes.