The Application Status Of Memantine In Patients With Dementia In Chongqing Area Of Southwest China

Backgroud:Dementia is a common neurodegenerative disease. The risk of dementia is expected to increase as populations are showing increased longevity. It is brings heavy burden to society and family. Memantine is the main drug which used in the treatment of dementia. It is available as an assigned medication of medical insurance in 2010 in Chongqing, Southwest China. From then on, memantine has been more used in our region. In clinical practice, we find that application of memantine is not always persistent and patients sometimes have poor compliance. Current situation of memantine administration need to be investigated in our region.Purpose:Memantine is proved to be effective in patients with moderate or severe Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and has been on the market in China since 2006. However, antidementia therapy is not widely used in patients with AD in our region. Therefore, we surveyed the situation of memantine utilization in our hospital.Methods:Dementia patients with administration of memantine were included from database and geriatric memory clinic of The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University between January 2011 and March 2015. The questionnaires were performed by telephone interview or face-to-face interview, including memantine dosage, efficacy, adverse events, clinical global impression change (CGI-C) and the reasons for drug withdrawal.Results:159 patients were collected and 122 patients completed this study. Memantine was prescribed in patients with dementia,42 patients were treated with memantine for less than 1 month.23 patients were treated between 1 month and 6 months.57 were treated more than 6 months. The reasons for memantine withdrawal included lack of knowledge for dementia care, economic problem, lack of satisfied efficacy, obvious side effects. The improvement of clinical condition was found in patients treated with memantine for more than 6 months compared to the patients treated with memantine for less than 1 month (CGI-C score 3.94 vs.4.44, p<0.05). In the 122 patients,5 (4.09%) cases had the adverse events.Conclusions:Prescription of memantine is reasonable in our region. However, medication compliance is not good. Education for dementia should be widely carried out in public.