Drug use patterns of persons with Alzheimer's disease and related disorders living in the community.

OBJECTIVE

To describe drug use patterns by persons with Alzheimer's disease, multi-infarct dementia, and mixed Alzheimer's disease and multi-infarct dementia.

DESIGN

Multicenter, patient registry.

SETTING

Community-living persons evaluated in primary care, geriatric, and Alzheimer ambulatory settings.

PARTICIPANTS

Of the 930 persons in three diagnostic categories, there were 671 with probable or possible Alzheimer's disease by NINCDS/ADRDA criteria or Alzheimer's disease by DSM-III-R criteria, 162 multi-infarct cases by DSM-III-R criteria, and 97 mixed cases by DSM-III-R criteria. In each diagnostic category, 65% were women, and the majority were 70 years or older.

MEASUREMENTS

The average number of all prescription and non-prescription drugs and selected therapeutic categories by age, sex, diagnosis, and mini-mental status score at the time of diagnosis or evaluation.

RESULTS

Alzheimer patients average 2.3 drugs compared with multi-infarct (4.3; P < 0.0001) and mixed (3.7; P = 0.002) patients, and their pattern of drug use was different when stratified by therapeutic categories and drug classes. Drug use increased with age, and women used significantly more drugs than men in all three diagnostic categories. Women with Alzheimer's disease used significantly more cardiovascular drugs than men with Alzheimer's disease (P < 0.05). The lower the mini-mental status score in patients with any dementia, the greater the mean number of central nervous system agents used. The higher the mini-mental status score in a patient with multi-infarct or mixed dementia, the greater the use of cardiovascular drugs.

CONCLUSION

Drug use by Alzheimer patients was lower than in multi-infarct and mixed patients, primarily due to a lower prevalence of cardiovascular drugs.