Extemporaneous combination of donepezil and memantine to treat dementia in Alzheimer disease: Evidence from Italian real-world data
Open accessAbstract
Objective Providing evidence on donepezil and memantine administration as extemporaneous combination (DM-EXT) to treat Alzheimer Disease (AD) in Italy, and describing demographic and clinical features of AD patients prescribed DM-EXT.Methods Retrospective observational study using IQVIA Italian LifeLink Treatment Dynamics (LRx) and Longitudinal Patient Database (LPD). Prevalent users of DM-EXT were identified on the databases (cohorts DMpLRx and DMpLPD) including patients with donepezil and memantine overlapping prescriptions during the selection period (DMpLRx: “July 2018–June 2021”; DMpLPD: “July 2012–June 2021”). Demographic and clinical profiles of patients were provided. Starting from cohort DMpLPD, new users of DM-EXT were selected to calculate treatment adherence. Three additional cohorts of prevalent users of DM-EXT were identified on IQVIA LRx over subsequent 12-month periods, from July 2018 to June 2021, to get national-level yearly estimates accounting for database representativeness.Results Cohorts DMpLRx and DMpLPD included 9862 and 708 patients, respectively. For both cohorts, two-third of patients were female, and more than half were aged 80+. Concomitant conditions and co-treatments prevalence was very high; most frequent comorbidities included psychiatric and cardiovascular diseases. An intermediate-to-high adherence was observed in 57% of DM-EXT new users. National-level yearly estimates showed an increasing trend (+4%) in DM-EXT prescription, which led to estimate about 10,000 patients being treated during the period “July 2020–June 2021”.Conclusions Prescription of DM-EXT is a common practice in Italy. Because the administration of fixed-dose (FDCs) instead of extemporaneous combinations improves treatment adherence, the introduction of an FDC containing donepezil and memantine might enhance AD patients’ management and reduce caregiver burden.
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For moderate-to-severe AD dementia, a combination of memantine and donepezil is approved.
“For moderate-to-severe AD dementia, a combination of a glutamate regulator (memantine) and a cholinesterase inhibitor (donepezil) is approved [127,128,129].”
From Recent Advances in Therapeutics for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease (2024) · cites this paper as [128]
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References 49 · Cited by 9
Research works printed but not linked: 3
- Cartabellotta A, Eleopra R, Quintana S. Linee guida per la diag- nosi, il trattamento e il supporto dei pazienti affetti da demenza. Evidence. 2018;1:e1000190.
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- Authors
- Padovani, A., Falato, S., & Pegoraro, V.
- Affiliations
- University of Brescia (IT)
- RWS Department, IQVIA Solutions Italy S.r.l, Milan, Italy
- Corresponding author
- Pegoraro, Valeria
- Venue
- Current Medical Research and Opinion
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2023-03-11
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 567-577
- ISSN
- 0300-7995 (ISSN-L)
- 1473-4877
- OpenAlex
- W4321454606
- Cited by
- 9
- References
- 49
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2
- FWCI
- 1.82
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Medical Research and Opinion (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Institutional Research Information System (Università degli Studi di Brescia) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Lusofarmaco
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Cholinesterase and Neurodegenerative Diseases
- Keywords
- donepezil, memantine, Alzheimer's disease, dementia, fixed-dose combination, medication adherence, prescribing patterns, comorbidities, caregiver burden
- MeSH terms
- Donepezil, Alzheimer Disease, Female, Humans, Italy, Male, Memantine, Retrospective Studies
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