Fig. 2

Proportion of SATS participants. a Proportion of patients according to differences in treatment response in global performance (CIBIC) from the start of ChEI therapy over 3 years for mild vs. moderate AD (***p <0.001, **0.001 ≤ p <0.01, *p <0.05). CIBIC score 1–3 was considered as improvement, 4 as unchanged and 5–7 as deterioration. b Proportion of patients who discontinued the study for various reasons according to the stage of their AD. Initiation of memantine therapy (p <0.001) and poor effect/deterioration (p = 0.002) were more frequent reasons for drop-out in the cohort with moderate AD; switching to another study (p = 0.010) was more common among the patients with mild AD. No significant difference between the disease stages was observed for the other reasons for drop-out. AD Alzheimer’s disease, ChEI cholinesterase inhibitor, CIBIC Clinician Interview-Based Impression of Change