Dementia‐related psychosis in the United States: Estimated prevalence of patients treated with antipsychotics/mood stabilizers and methodology using third party claims database

Abstract

AbstractBackgroundDementia affects approximately 8 million people in the US and about 2.4 million experience dementia‐related psychosis, such as hallucinations and delusions1‐15. However, the currently treated prevalence of psychosis in dementia is not well established. Currently there are no approved medications for dementia‐related psychosis and antipsychotics (APs)/mood stabilizers(MS) are commonly used to treat psychotic and behavioral symptoms.16‐19MethodInitially Anonymous Patient Level Data was used to identify patients prescribed APs and/or MS in the 1 year index period. Presence of dementia before psychosis was confirmed through a 1‐year look‐back period based on Dx or Rx. APs/MSs were enforced to be subsequent to the dementia diagnosis and/or treatment within the study period. The cohort was then analyzed to determine whether conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder were significantly more commonly observed than in the general population to exclude selection bias. Lastly the raw patient data was projected to the total universe using known coverage ratios for the data set and specific cohort.ResultAfter adjusting for non‐reporting sources, approximately 700,000 patients, who were identified by the methods criteria to have dementia and psychotic symptoms were prescribed APs based on the estimation. An additional 100,000 patients were prescribed MSs (but no APs) presumably due to dementia with psychosis.ConclusionApproximately 30% of persons with dementia suffer from psychosis and our findings suggest that only 33% of them are currently pharmacologically treated with APs and MSs, or ≤ 10% of about 8 million people with dementia. Further studies are needed to explore other potential therapies, usages, and treatments in this population.