Patient disposition and characteristics
ADAS‐cog
One hundred and fifty‐four patients were screened, and five of them were excluded due to being physically unhealthy (Flow diagram and disposition of the four treatment groups.Of the 149 eligible patients, gender, age, education level, age at illness onset, illness duration, body mass index, MMSE, ADAS‐cog, and AChEI use (both percentage and dosage) at baseline were similar among the four groups (Table Baseline clinical characteristics of the three benzoate groups (500, 750, and 1000 mg/day) and the placebo groupAChEIs, acetylcholine esterase inhibitors; ADAS‐cog, The Alzheimer's Disease assessment scale‐cognitive subscale; BE500, sodium benzoate 500 mg/day; BE750, sodium benzoate 750 mg/day; BE1000, sodium benzoate 1000 mg/day; BMI, body mass index; MMSE, mini‐mental state examination.Chi‐square test.Kruskal–Wallis test.Kruskal–Wallis test for the comparison of doses among four groups.Finally, 34 (89.5%) patients in the benzoate 500 group, 29 (80.6%) in the benzoate 750 group, 30 (81.1%) in the benzoate 1000 group, and 33 (86.8%) in the placebo group completed the 24‐week trial (Fig. 