Changes in the use of psychotropic drugs during the course of Alzheimer's disease: A large-scale longitudinal study of French medical records.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

We aim to understand how patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are treated by identifying in a longitudinal fashion the late-life changes in patients' medical history that precede and follow AD diagnosis.

Methods

We use prescription history of 34,782 patients followed between 1996 and 2019 by French general practitioners. We compare patients with an AD diagnosis, patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and patients free of mental disorders. We use a generalized mixed-effects model to study the longitudinal changes in the prescription of eight drug types for a period 15 years before diagnosis and 10 years after.

Results

In the decades preceding diagnosis, we find that future AD patients are treated significantly more than MCI patients with most psy

SUBMITTER: Ansart M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8439142 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature