%0 Journal Article
%T The effect of antidementia drugs on mortality in patients with Alzheimer¡¯s disease
%A Ching-Herng Lin
%A Po-Hsun Hou
%A Tsuo-Hung Lan
%A Wei-Hao Lin
%J Journal of Psychopharmacology
%@ 1461-7285
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0269881119845795
%X Alzheimer¡¯s disease is associated with a higher mortality rate after the diagnosis. We hypothesized that patients with Alzheimer¡¯s disease who received antidementia drugs may have a lower mortality rate than those without such treatment. Patients with newly diagnosed Alzheimer¡¯s disease aged £¿65 years during 2001¨C2006 were identified in the National Health Institute Research Database, Taiwan. We included patients with Alzheimer¡¯s disease who received antidementia drugs as the exposure group (ADD group), and compared them with a non-exposure group who did not receive any antidementia drugs (non-ADD group) matched for age at the index date, gender and Charlson Comorbidity Index score before the index date. All-cause mortality rates and Charlson Comorbidity Index scores at one and two years after the index date were compared between the ADD and non-ADD groups. There were 529 patients in non-ADD group and 529 in the ADD group. The mortality rate was significantly lower in the ADD group compared with the non-ADD group (42% versus 58.6%; p<0.0001). Our results suggest that antidementia drugs may have a protective effect against mortality in patients with Alzheimer¡¯s disease
%K Alzheimer¡¯s disease
%K antidementia drug
%K cholinesterase inhibitor
%K memantine
%K mortality
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0269881119845795