Alzheimer’s drugs prescriptions rise six-fold in a decade
pharmafile | January 19, 2016 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | Alzheimer's, Alzheimer's disease, NHSIC, dementia, prescribing
The number of prescriptions dispensed in England for approved medicines to treat Alzheimer’s increased from 502,000 in 2004 to 3 million in 2014, according to a new NHS report.
The statistics are published today as part of the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) ‘Focus On Dementia’ report. It pulls together in one place for the first time a range of information on dementia, including statistics on diagnosis, prescribing, social care, mental health and lifestyle trends.
HSCIC found the proportion of people who had a diagnosis of dementia in their GP record rose from 643 per 100,000 people in April 2014 to 755 people per 100,000 in December 2015. GPs were offered a £55 payment as an incentive to record diagnoses of dementia, in a scheme that ran for six months from September 2014.
The report finds that increasing diagnoses of Alzheimer’s disease took their toll on the healthcare budget – but there are signs that costs are coming back under control. The NHS spent £45.7m on prescriptions for Alzheimer’s disease medicines dispensed in primary care in 2014. This was up from £42.8m in 2004, but down from the high point reached in 2011 of £110.8m.
In addition, the HSCIC analysed the mental health data linked to Office for National Statistics mortality data, finding a median survival time of three and a half years from when patients are first assessed as having ‘cognitive impairment or dementia at moderate need.’
The rising prevalence of the disease not only impacts on the sufferers, but also their carers, according to the report’s figures, with 39% of responding carers who looked after someone with dementia saying they spent 100 or more hours each week doing so in 2014/15. Over half (51%) of carers had been in this role for more than five years.
Carers of people with dementia assessed their own quality of life as 7.7 out of 12 overall, with some regional variation. This is lowest in London at 7.3 and highest in the North East at 8.4.
HSCIC statistician Jonathan Hope says: “Our ageing population means that the way we diagnose, treat and care for people with dementia will be increasingly important to many of us. I hope that bringing statistics together from different aspects of health and care services can give us a more rounded picture of the treatment and experiences of those with dementia and their carers.”
Joel Levy
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