Review: selegiline leads to a small short-term improvement in cognition and activities of daily living in Alzheimer disease.

S t u d y s e l e c t i o n Studies were selected if they were unconfounded, randomized, double-blind, controlled trials that compared selegiline with placebo in patients with Alzheimer disease. Studies had to have been reported before the end of 1998; patients had to meet the criteria of the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Associations or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders for Alzheimer disease; and any secondary treatments (e.g., physostigmine and lecithin) had to be given to both the selegiline and placebo groups. D a t a e x t r a c t i o n Individual patient data were requested. When these data were not provided, summary data were extracted from the published reports for patient characteristics, treatment completion, and outcomes.