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67/100

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 67 out of 100. Mild cognitive impairment

Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies

Plain-language summary

Objective To determine whether the presence of depression predicts higher rate of progression to Alzheimer disease (AD) in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and whether donepezil treatment beneficially affect this relationship. Methods The study sample was composed of 756 participants with aMCI from the 3-year, double-blind, placebo-controlled Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study drug trial of donepezil and vitamin E. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to assess depressive symptoms at baseline and participants were followed either to the end of study or to the primary endpoint of progression to probable or possible AD. Results Cox proportional hazards regression, adjusted for age at baseline, gender, apolipoprotein genotype, and NYU paragraph delayed recall score, showed that higher BDI scores were associated with progression to AD (p = 0.03). The sample was stratified into depressed (BDI score > or =10; n = 208) and nondepressed (BDI Conclusions Results suggest that depression is predictive of progression from amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) to Alzheimer disease (AD) and treatment with donepezil delayed progression to AD among depressed subjects with aMCI. Donepezil appears to modulate the increased risk of AD conferred by the presence of depressive symptoms.

Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris

APA 7th

Lu, P. H., Edland, S. D., Teng, E., Tingus, K., Petersen, R. C., Cummings, J. L., et al. (2009). Donepezil delays progression to AD in MCI subjects with depressive symptoms. Neurology. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0b013e3181aa52d3

Vancouver

Lu PH, Edland SD, Teng E, Tingus K, Petersen RC, Cummings JL, et al. Donepezil delays progression to AD in MCI subjects with depressive symptoms. Neurology. 2009. doi:10.1212/wnl.0b013e3181aa52d3. PMID: 19528519.

BibTeX

@article{lu2009-19528519,
  author  = {Lu, P. H. and Edland, S. D. and Teng, E. and Tingus, K. and Petersen, R. C. and Cummings, J. L. and {Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study Group}},
  title   = {{Donepezil delays progression to AD in MCI subjects with depressive symptoms}},
  journal = {Neurology},
  year    = {2009},
  doi     = {10.1212/wnl.0b013e3181aa52d3},
  pmid    = {19528519},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0b013e3181aa52d3}
}

Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record names 7 authors; APA and Vancouver show the first six, BibTeX and the downloads carry all of them. Check the citation against the original before you use it.

How to read this study

Design: this is a trial. Participants are assigned to a treatment or a comparison, so the key questions are who was enrolled, whether the comparison group got a placebo or nothing, how long people were followed, and whether the result is on a measure that matters to patients or on a biomarker. Open-label and small trials can overstate benefit.
Size: the record lists 208 participants. Ask whether that is enough for the question, and who they were.
Effect: the record gives no effect size, so the summary above cannot say how large any difference was.

What the evidence grade means here

This page is graded low. alzhub.org assigns the grade automatically from keywords in the abstract, not from reading the paper. Low means the abstract matched neither pattern. It is the default label, and it does not mean the work is poor; many sound lab and imaging papers land here. It can add at most 5 of the 100 points in the study score, and it is a label about design, not a verdict on whether the findings are true.

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Key findings

Objective To determine whether the presence of depression predicts higher rate of progression to Alzheimer disease (AD) in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and whether donepezil treatment beneficially affect this relationship.
Results Cox proportional hazards regression, adjusted for age at baseline, gender, apolipoprotein genotype, and NYU paragraph delayed recall score, showed that higher BDI scores were associated with progression to AD (p = 0.03).
The sample was stratified into depressed (BDI score > or =10; n = 208) and nondepressed (BDI <10; n = 548) groups.
Donepezil appears to modulate the increased risk of AD conferred by the presence of depressive symptoms.

Why it matters

In 756 people with memory-type mild cognitive impairment from a 3-year placebo-controlled trial of donepezil and vitamin E, those with more depressive symptoms at the start were more likely to progress to Alzheimer's disease (p = 0.03). Within the 208 participants who scored as depressed (Beck Depression Inventory ≥10), the authors report that donepezil "delayed progression to AD", and conclude it "appears to modulate" the extra risk tied to depressive symptoms. This is a subgroup finding from a single trial; it does not show that donepezil prevents Alzheimer's or helps people with MCI who are not depressed.

Study details

Participants208
Evidence strengthLow

How this study scored 67/100

Published in a leading specialty journal, and it is a randomized controlled trial. Scored zero for effect reported because the record does not state it.

Component	Points	Why
Journal tier	9 / 10	Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Neurology)
Journal's citation record	4 / 4	Neurology: journal h-index 525 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29)
Study design	11 / 12	A randomized controlled trial (from PubMed type “Randomized Controlled Trial”)
Strength of evidence	1 / 5	Rated “low” in our summary
Peer-review validation	10 / 10	Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal.
How recent	1 / 5	2009 — within 20 year(s) of the newest study here
Sample size	2 / 4	208 participants
Effect reported	0 / 3	No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Studied in people	3 / 3	Studied in people (participant count stated)
Randomized / blinded	2 / 2	Randomized and blinded or placebo-controlled (as stated in the record)
Times cited	5 / 7	Cited 148 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10)
Citations per year	2 / 5	7.8 citations a year over 19 year(s) since 2009
Impact for its field and year	4 / 6	Cited 8.7× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI)
Cited by studies here	2 / 6	Cited by 9 other studies in this library
Still being cited	1 / 4	Cited 5 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex)
Senior author's track record	4 / 4	Last-listed author Jeffrey L. Cummings: h-index 175 (OpenAlex, whole career)
Institution's track record	2 / 3	University of California, Los Angeles: institution h-index 1,923 (OpenAlex)
Multicenter collaboration	2 / 3	OpenAlex lists 5 institution(s) in 1 country
Indexed in PubMed	2 / 2	Indexed in PubMed (PMID 19528519)
Free to read	0 / 2	Behind a paywall — scores zero
Total	67 / 100	—

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