ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the harmful effects of olanzapine and quetiapine therapeusis on swallowing ability in patients with Alzheimer'disease (AD).Methods AD inpatients with behavioral and psychological symptoms were randomly divided into two groups,treated with olanzapine (n=42) or quetiapine (n=38) for 6 weeks.The patients were assessed with Kubota's water swallowing test and arterial oxygen saturation(SaO2) monitoring pre and pro treatment.Results After treatment,a significant higher score of water swallowing test (t =2.682,2.040;both P＜ 0.05)in either of two groups,and a significant raised degrade of SaO2 only in olanzapine group(t=4.313,P＜0.01)but not in quetiapine group (P＞0.05)were observed.There was a significant higher degrade of SaO2 in olanzapine group than that in quetiapine group (t=2.155,P＜0.05)at 6 weekend of the study.Before pharmacon,about 29％ (23/80) AD subjects were diagnosed as dysphagia.After pharmacon,more emerging dysphagia patients were surveyed in olanzapine group compared with that in quetiapine group(9/31 vs 2/26,x2=4.135,P＜0.05).No significant change (both P＞0.05) in scores of mini-mental state examination(MMSE) and a significant reduced score(t=3.019,2.867;both P＜0.01)of behavioral pathology in Alzheimer'disease rating scale (BEHAVE-AD) were found in both two groups at the end of study.There was no difference among the two groups with regard to score of MMSE or BEHAVE-AD after treatment(both P＞0.05).Conclusion Either olanzapine or quetiapine therapeutics might do some harmful effects on swallowing function in patients with AD,especially the former.