Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37708117›Full record

ArticlePloS one2023

A causal inference study: The impact of the combined administration of Donepezil and Memantine on decreasing hospital and emergency department visits of Alzheimer's disease patients.

Ehsan Yaghmaei, Albert Pierce, Hongxia Lu, Yesha M Patel, Louis Ehwerhemuepha, Ahmad Rezaie, Seyed Ahmad Sajjadi, Cyril Rakovski

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Ehsan YaghmaeiSchmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, United States of America.
Albert PierceSchmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, United States of America.
Hongxia LuSchool of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States of America.ORCID 0000-0002-9956-5591
Yesha M PatelSchmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, United States of America.
Louis EhwerhemuephaChildren's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), Orange, CA, United States of America.
Ahmad RezaieSchmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, United States of America.
Seyed Ahmad SajjadiSchool of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States of America.
Cyril RakovskiSchmid College of Science and Technology, Chapman University, Orange, CA, United States of America.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease is the most common type of dementia that currently affects over 6.5 million people in the U.S. Currently there is no cure and the existing drug therapies attempt to delay the mental decline and improve cognitive abilities. Two of the most commonly prescribed such drugs are Donepezil and Memantine. We formally tested and confirmed the presence of a beneficial drug-drug interaction of Donepezil and Memantine using a causal inference analysis. We applied doubly robust estimators to one of the largest and high-quality medical databases to estimate the effect of two commonly prescribed Alzheimer's disease (AD) medications, Donepezil and Memantine, on the average number of hospital or emergency department visits per year among patients diagnosed with AD. Our results show that, compared to the absence of medication scenario, the Memantine monotherapy, and the Donepezil monotherapy, the combined use of Donepezil and Memantine treatment significantly reduces the average number of hospital or emergency department visits per year by 0.078 (13.8%), 0.144 (25.5%), and 0.132 days (23.4%), respectively. The assessed decline in the average number of hospital or emergency department visits per year is consequently associated with a substantial reduction in medical costs. As of 2022, according to the Alzheimer's Disease Association, there were over 6.5 million individuals aged 65 and older living with AD in the US alone. If patients who are currently on no drug treatment or using either Donepezil or Memantine alone were switched to the combined used of Donepezil and Memantine therapy, the average number of hospital or emergency department visits could decrease by over 613 thousand visits per year. This, in turn, would lead to a remarkable reduction in medical expenses associated with hospitalization of AD patients in the US, totaling over 940 million dollars per year.

Indexed as

Alzheimer DiseaseDonepezilEmergency Service, HospitalHospitalsHumansMemantineDonepezilMemantine

Identifiers

PMID37708117
PMCPMC10501598

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.