[Significance of treatment and adequate care in dementia--including point of medical comments in health care insurance system for elderly people by doctors].

Dementia treatment is one of the most important in home medical care. Donepezil hydrochloride, a dementia treatment drug available in Japan, is a symptomatic therapy but alleviates memory, willingness and feeling disorders and significantly improves QOL. Family doctors will be required to diagnose Alzheimer disease (AD) but it is very difficult for general physician to diagnose AD. This is the reason that the authors devised the simple criteria for diagnosing AD. Meanwhile, recent data from a multi-center study of donepezil hydrochloride for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) conducted in the US suggest that donepezil hydrochloride is also as useful for MCI as for AD. This is considered to suggest the significance to start treatment for AD at the early stage. Care for demented patients is not only the improvement of the apparent dementia. Recent scientific study data may be directly connected to treatment. These days, not a few elderly patients with dementia attend "Day-care Service" and the data indicate that rehabilitations they have under "Day-care Service" are important and useful. It is considered that non-pharmacological treatment may also play an important role and necessary to accumulate evidences in the future.