OBJECTIVES

: The benefits of pharmacological therapy with anti-dementia drugs are not yet fully demonstrated and there is even a lack of publications describing their use profile. The present work sought to determine the prescription patterns of anti-dementia drugs in a Colombian population.

METHODS

: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Through a systematized database of 3.5 million affiliates to the Colombian health system, patients with uninterrupted dispensing of anti-dementia drugs between August-October / 2016 were selected. Sociodemographic, pharmacological and comedication variables were analyzed. The costs of the therapies were estimated from the reference price of the medicines.

RESULTS

: We identified 8372 patients with a mean age of 79.5 ± 8.7 years and 65.3% (n = 5471) were women. The most widely used medication was rivastigmine (69.6%, n = 5828), mainly in transdermal presentation, followed by memantine (n = 2625, 31.4%). In general, the average dose administered per day was lower than the defined daily dose. Only 568 patients (6.7%) used combination therapy. 84.3% of patients (n = 7061) used some additional medication and 54.2% (n = 4535) had another neurologic medication. The cost per 1000 inhabitants / day of rivastigmine was 3,47 USD and for memantine 0,30 USD.

CONCLUSIONS

: Patients with anti-dementia drugs are using them at doses lower than those defined and they present an important frequency of comorbidities and comedications.