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Article Quality Tracking
Nagamine T. Suspected donepezil withdrawal syndrome in an older woman with Alzheimer disease of abrupt cessation: A case report. World J Clin Cases 2026; 14(27): 128223 [DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.128223]
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Reviewer's ID:
00724702
Submitted on:
October 13, 2026, 12:14
Peer-Review:
Anonymous
Reviewer's Country:
India
Conflicts-of-interest statement

Reviewers should recognize, acknowledge and disclose any potential conflict of interest that may include (but not be limited) to the following, and inform the editorial office immediately upon discovery of any conflict of interest, stopping if the article review process is underway.

Close personal and/or professional relationship with the author(s); submitted similar or competing manuscripts to BPG or other journals; studied together with the author(s) and/or has former student, resident, fellow, mentor or family relative relationship; and have had in last 5 years collaboration or common grants and/or publications or financial interest with the authors?
Criteria for Article Quality Tracking-Peer-Review

The mission of BPG is to comply with publishing ethics/standards established by the industry and to publish high quality articles. In addition, we strive to make a strict peer-review of each article submitted, and tracking the scientific quality of each is the mission of the editorial board members and/or peer-reviewers.

The following evaluation points are for editorial board members and/or peer-reviewers’ reference only in evaluating an article:

1 Ethics: Does the ethical approval form provided by the author meet the requirements?

2 Methods: Is the experimental method effective? Can it be repeated by fellow researchers (according to adequate textual/citation content presented)?

3 Results: Are the results true and authentic? Is the theory or hypothesis of universal significance validated or partially validated?

4 Figures and tables: Does the author provide perfect tables, line charts and/or graphs? Or, does the author provide figures and tables that are confusing, poorly constructed and/or not well-annotated?

5 Biostatistics: Does the author provide perfect biostatistics data? Or, does the author provide tables and line charts that have mistakes in the data?

6 References: Does the author scientifically and reasonably cite the latest references which are important in this field and related to the scientific problems and research hypotheses addressed in the study? Or, does the author self-cite, omit, mis-cite and/or over-cite references?

7 Language: Does the language in article correctly, clearly and concisely express the information? Or, does the article have multiple grammatical and spelling mistakes?

8 Caveats or drawbacks: What are the caveats or drawbacks for the results?

Comments to Authors
Please make a specific and meaningful evaluation on the objectivity, credibility and scientific quality of the article according to above listed criteria. Please identify which issues have been resolved by the author and which not, what problems still exist, and which method the author intends to adopt to solve the problem in the next step, etc. Your high quality conclusion will also be advantageous for the author’s efforts in conducting future research, will contribute to raising the reader’s interest, and will promote discipline development. Please fill in your detailed comments to authors at below:
The manuscript describes a case report of suspected donepezil withdrawal syndrome in an 89-year-old female with Alzheimer’s disease following abrupt discontinuation of long-term donepezil (10 mg/day). The most important finding is the acute onset of severe behavioral and cognitive disturbances including psychomotor agitation, verbal aggression, insomnia, delirium, and new-onset gait instability within 48 hours of discontinuation, which resolved after reintroduction of low-dose donepezil (5 mg/day). The main scientific and clinical contribution of this work is to increase the awareness of clinicians of the acute withdrawal phenomena associated with the use of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. It provides useful clues for differential diagnosis when elderly dementia patients present with abrupt decompensation during transitions of care or efforts at deprescribing, emphasizing that abrupt cessation requires close clinical monitoring. Methodologically, the report is strengthened by its clear chronological narrative, structured causality assessment, adherence to validated diagnostic tools (such as CAM and HDS-R), and transparent contextualization with existing literature. Importantly, the author addresses important pharmacokinetic questions regarding the rapidity of symptom onset relative to the elimination half-life of donepezil. Main limitations include the single-patient design and unavoidable clinical confounders such as environmental stress associated with recent nursing home admission, underlying progression of dementia and transient low-dose quetiapine use. Objective pharmacokinetic biomarkers and continuous symptom-severity scales also were not used. However, the author appropriately couches these findings with balanced caution lending practical clinical utility and educational value to the manuscript.
Author Awards
1 Award aims: To praise the authors who have made outstanding contributions by publishing original and innovative Basic study, Clinical study, Case report and/or Review in any of the 43 open-access publications of BPG. Their publications represent meaningful contributions towards promoting the ability of readers to get the latest research results and towards the development of medical science. To thank such authors for their contributions, we have set up the ‘Baishideng Distinguished Award’ to track the quality of articles and award the corresponding authors.

2 Selection methods: Editorial board members will track the quality of the published articles in each issue, so that they can recognize excellent articles and categorize them for recommendation. Then, the annual Baishideng Distinguished Award winners will be selected according to the recommendation categories and the academic influence of the articles. The indexes for academic influence of the articles involves the number of citations, clicks and downloads the paper received.

3 Number of awards: Among articles published in the 43 journals of BPG, 12 total articles (3 Reviews, 3 Basic studies, 3 Clinical studies and 3 Case reports) will be recognized and their authors awarded.

4 Award amounts: The first prize will be 5000 USD. The second prize will be 3000 USD. The third prize will be 2000 USD. In addition, each winner will be presented an official certificate for their Baishideng Distinguished Award.

5 List of winners: The list of Baishideng Distinguished Award winners will be announced on the official BPG website.
Editorial board members and/or peer-reviewers should categorize articles according to the following recommendation categories, with consideration to results of the Track Article Quality assessment to identify excellent articles:
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