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Anti-dementia drugs: a descriptive study of the prescription pattern in Italy

INTRODUCTION: Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) and memantine are currently the only anti-dementia drugs (ADDs) approved for treating Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in Italy. This nationwide study aims to characterize dementia drug utilization in a population > 65 years, during 2018–2020. METHOD...

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Autores principales: Ippoliti, Ilaria, Ancidoni, Antonio, Da Cas, Roberto, Pierantozzi, Andrea, Vanacore, Nicola, Trotta, Francesco
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9807981/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36595207
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10072-022-06586-8
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author Ippoliti, Ilaria
Ancidoni, Antonio
Da Cas, Roberto
Pierantozzi, Andrea
Vanacore, Nicola
Trotta, Francesco
author_facet Ippoliti, Ilaria
Ancidoni, Antonio
Da Cas, Roberto
Pierantozzi, Andrea
Vanacore, Nicola
Trotta, Francesco
author_sort Ippoliti, Ilaria
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) and memantine are currently the only anti-dementia drugs (ADDs) approved for treating Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in Italy. This nationwide study aims to characterize dementia drug utilization in a population > 65 years, during 2018–2020. METHODS: Different administrative healthcare databases were queried to collect both aggregate and individual data. RESULTS: ADD consumption remained stable throughout the study period (~ 9 DDD/1000 inhabitants per day). AChEI consumption was over 5 DDD/1000 inhabitants per day. Memantine consumption was nearly 4 DDD/1000 inhabitants per day, representing 40% of ADD consumption. The prevalence of use of memantine represented nearly half of ADD consumption, substantially unchanged over the 3 years. Comparing the AD prevalence with the prevalence of ADDs use, the gap becomes wider as age increases. In 2019, the proportion of private purchases of ADDs was 38%, mostly represented by donepezil and rivastigmine. In 2020, memantine was the only ADD with an increase in consumption (Δ% 19–20, 1.3%). DISCUSSION: To our knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to investigate the ADD prescription pattern in Italy with a Public Health approach. In 2019, the proportion of ADD private purchases point out several issues concerning the reimbursability of ADDs. From a regulatory perspective, ADDs can be reimbursed by the National Health System only to patients diagnosed with AD; therefore, the off-label use of ADDs in patients with mild cognitive impairment may partially explain this phenomenon. The study extends knowledge on the use of ADDs, providing comparisons with studies from other countries that investigate the prescription pattern of ADDs.
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spelling pubmed-98079812023-01-04 Anti-dementia drugs: a descriptive study of the prescription pattern in Italy Ippoliti, Ilaria Ancidoni, Antonio Da Cas, Roberto Pierantozzi, Andrea Vanacore, Nicola Trotta, Francesco Neurol Sci Original Article INTRODUCTION: Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEIs) and memantine are currently the only anti-dementia drugs (ADDs) approved for treating Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in Italy. This nationwide study aims to characterize dementia drug utilization in a population > 65 years, during 2018–2020. METHODS: Different administrative healthcare databases were queried to collect both aggregate and individual data. RESULTS: ADD consumption remained stable throughout the study period (~ 9 DDD/1000 inhabitants per day). AChEI consumption was over 5 DDD/1000 inhabitants per day. Memantine consumption was nearly 4 DDD/1000 inhabitants per day, representing 40% of ADD consumption. The prevalence of use of memantine represented nearly half of ADD consumption, substantially unchanged over the 3 years. Comparing the AD prevalence with the prevalence of ADDs use, the gap becomes wider as age increases. In 2019, the proportion of private purchases of ADDs was 38%, mostly represented by donepezil and rivastigmine. In 2020, memantine was the only ADD with an increase in consumption (Δ% 19–20, 1.3%). DISCUSSION: To our knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to investigate the ADD prescription pattern in Italy with a Public Health approach. In 2019, the proportion of ADD private purchases point out several issues concerning the reimbursability of ADDs. From a regulatory perspective, ADDs can be reimbursed by the National Health System only to patients diagnosed with AD; therefore, the off-label use of ADDs in patients with mild cognitive impairment may partially explain this phenomenon. The study extends knowledge on the use of ADDs, providing comparisons with studies from other countries that investigate the prescription pattern of ADDs. Springer International Publishing 2023-01-03 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC9807981/ /pubmed/36595207 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10072-022-06586-8 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Original Article
Ippoliti, Ilaria
Ancidoni, Antonio
Da Cas, Roberto
Pierantozzi, Andrea
Vanacore, Nicola
Trotta, Francesco
Anti-dementia drugs: a descriptive study of the prescription pattern in Italy
title Anti-dementia drugs: a descriptive study of the prescription pattern in Italy
title_full Anti-dementia drugs: a descriptive study of the prescription pattern in Italy
title_fullStr Anti-dementia drugs: a descriptive study of the prescription pattern in Italy
title_full_unstemmed Anti-dementia drugs: a descriptive study of the prescription pattern in Italy
title_short Anti-dementia drugs: a descriptive study of the prescription pattern in Italy
title_sort anti-dementia drugs: a descriptive study of the prescription pattern in italy
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9807981/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36595207
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10072-022-06586-8
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