ORALLY DISINTEGRATING DONEPEZIL: ARE THE MAIN CAREGIVERS OF PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE MORE SATISFIED WITH THIS FORMULATION OF DONEPEZIL THAN WITH THE TRADITIONAL ONE?

Aim. To know whether caregivers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients on donepezil treatment are more satisfied with the orally disintegrating tablet (ODT) formulation than with the film-coated tablets. Patients and methods. Multicenter, cross-sectional study of patients with probably AD by DSM-IV or NINCDS-ADRDA criteria, on monotherapy with donepezil, ODT or film-coated tablets. Satisfaction with treatment was assessed by the caregiver self-administered generic Treatment Satisfaction with Medicines Questionnaire (SATMED-Q) -range: 0, no satisfaction, to 100, maximal satisfaction-, total and in six dimensions: undesirable effects, efficacy, medical care, medication ease and convenience, medication impact oil daily activities, and overall satisfaction. Results. 546 patients were enrolled (9,6% institutionalized); 64,8% women: 78,2 +/- 65 years of age: disease evolution of 22.5 +/- 24.6 months, Minimental State Examination (MMSE) meanscore: 18,5 +/- 5; 67.9% on film-coated tablets and 32.1% on ODT After adjusting by MMSE and time of treatment, caregivers of patients on ODT showed significantly higher SATMED-Q total score (74.5 +/- 11.8 vs. 70.4 +/- 12.3; p < 0.0004) and medication ease and convenience (84.9 +/- 16.4 vs. 79.8 +/- 17.6; p = 0.0059), impact of medication on daily activities (50.2 +/- 22.8 vs. 43.7 +/- 25.5; p = 0.0006) and satisfaction with medical care (79.4 +/- 19.5 vs. 75.6 +/- 21.8; p = 0.04894) scores. 91.6% of caregivers of patients on ODT (versus 82.9% of those on film-coated tablets: p = 0.023) stated that taking the medication was easy for their relatives. Conclusions. Results show that caregivers of AD patients on donepezil treatment are more satisfied with ODT versus film-coated tablets, especially due to its better ease of use. [REV NEUROL 2009; 49: 451-7]