Authors’ reply

We thank Dr. Aleman for his kind comments regarding our article. First, we agree with Dr. Aleman that a control group or control condition is required to exclude the influence of reported testing. With regard to the statistical analysis, although the doses of anticholinergic drugs as well as the baseline BPRS total scores are important for the prediction of improved memory in response to anticholinergic withdrawal, there is a significant positive relationship between the doses of anticholinergic drugs and the baseline BPRS total scores. In this context, it is conceivable that the differences in the contribution to predicting the improved memory between these two factors may be small. Therefore, we used simple linear regression analyses. We demonstrated that neither the baseline BPRS total score nor the dose of antipsychotic drugs has a significant relationship with the baseline DSDT ratings. In addition, there is no significant relationship between the improved DSDT ratings and the changes in BPRS total scores. In this context, it is difficult for us to demonstrate that the improved memory due to anticholinergic withdrawal is mediated by the improvement in BPRS total ratings.

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