Naslov
Pharmacoeconomics and Alzheimer's Disease

Autori
Vitezić, Dinko

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, znanstveni

Izvornik
Neurol Croat 2010 ; 59 (Supp.2): 45 / - , 2010

Skup
5th Croatian Congress on Alzheimer's Diseases with International Participation

Mjesto i datum
Zadar, Hrvatska, 22.09.2010. - 25.09.2010

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Pozvano predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
Alzheimers disease; pharmacoeconomics; economic burden; health technology assessment

Sažetak
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia worldwide and an important cause of morbidity and mortality in the elderly and a heavy economic burden on the society. According to the estimated prevalence the total worldwide societal costs of dementia was estimated to 422 billion USD in 2009. The available current treatment for AD is limited and this includes medicines as well. Because of this fact the important issue in adequate assessment of therapy should consider economic issue as well. Therefore pharmacoeconomics, as a new discipline of health economics, is one of the important elements in transparent evaluation of new medicines and health technologies. In the treatment of AD most widely used antidementia drugs are cholinesterase (ChE) inhibitors (donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine) and uncompetitive N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist, memantine. For the pharmacoeconomic assessment different analyses have been used and the most accepted one is cost-effectiveness analysis. In spite of methodologic difficulties the quality-of-life assessment constitutes a single measure of the total impact of the disease, as well as a way of quantifying the benefits of treatment with antidementia drugs so that they can be compared with interventions in other disease areas. In AD patients’ usage of antidementia drugs is associated with a better quality-of-life which includes reductions in functional and cognitive decline compared with patients without pharmacological treatment. The available pharmacoeconomic data from Europe and the US, despite some inherent limitations, support their usage as a cost-effective treatment in this patient population. It is also important that in the assessment of the therapy for a disease such as AD it is necessary to recognize the integrated burden of the disease, including its interaction with co-morbidities and the burden on caregivers, and to consider the consequences of competing treatment strategies from a societal perspective. For this reason each country needs to develop pharmacoeconomic guidelines according to their own specific situation.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Kliničke medicinske znanosti

POVEZANOST RADA