INTRODUCTION: Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors constitute an effective class of drugs for the treatment of mild and moderate Alzheimer's disease and are allowed by the responsible agencies for this purpose only. However, concrete evidence is still necessary in what concerns the impact of the use of such drugs to treat a large variety of cognitive disorders not classified as Alzheimer's disease. The aim of this study was to review the medical literature in search for updated evidence of the impact of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors on mild cognitive impairment and vascular dementia. METHODS: The literature review was carried out in the Lilacs, MEDLINE and EBMR databases. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Assays using acetylcholinesterase inhibitors for the treatment of mild cognitive impairment are still small, present little power of evidence, and show only a modest improvement of symptoms. A recent study shows reduced progression of mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease in the first 12 months of treatment, but this effect was not continuous. On the other hand, clinical trials involving patients with vascular dementia show encouraging results associated with the use of these drugs.
Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors; mild cognitive impairment; vascular dementia