Currently available drugs approved for AD (anticholinesterases and Memantine) have limited efficacy and do not alter the pathophysiological basis of disease nor disease progression. No drugs are currently approved by regulatory authorities specifically for the treatment of MCI. Because treatments are less effective when the disease is far advanced, individuals with MCI at earlier stages of their illness are likely better candidates for clinical trials. Neuropathology-based studies of "clinically non-demented" individuals show high burdens of vascular and AD types of pathology. MCI may therefore be a pathologically-based preclinical or early clinical phase of dementia that is likely to progress to AD or VaD, and is hence an appropriate predementia syndrome for therapeutic intervention.