Did knowledge, opinions, background, and health authority advice influence early prescribing of the novel Alzheimer's disease drug donepezil in general practice?—National postal survey
✍ Scribed by Richard M. Martin; Elizabeth Rink; David G. Wilkinson; Ronald D Mann
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 115 KB
- Volume
- 8
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1053-8569
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Background Ð Donepezil was licensed in the UK in February 1997 for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
Aims Ð To determine the advice from health authorities about prescribing Alzheimer's disease drugs. To determine whether the ®rst general practitioners who prescribed donepezil in England diered from non-prescribers in terms of knowledge, opinions, background, and the prescribing-advice issued by their health authority.
Methods Ð National postal survey of pharmaceutical advisors. Structured postal survey of all general practitioners in England who prescribed donepezil to two or more patients within the ®rst 6 months of launch, compared with a random sample of non-prescribers.
Results Ð Pharmaceutical advisors' survey: 75/100 pharmaceutical advisors responded, of whom 83% indicated that general practitioners should not initiate prescribing of Alzheimer's disease drugs and 63% said that they should not prescribe, even under shared care arrangements. General practitioner survey: 311/473 (66%) prescribers and 484/947 (51%) non-prescribers responded after two mailings. Prescribers were similar to non-prescribers in terms of demographic and practice characteristics, knowledge about Alzheimer's disease, diagnostic and initial management strategies, and the prescribing advice from health authorities. Prescribers were signi®cantly more likely than non-prescribers to strongly agree/agree that new drugs should be prescribed for mild ( p 0.0008) and moderate ( p 0.003) Alzheimer's disease, that they should normally be initiated ( p 0.003) and monitored by a general practitioner ( p 5 0.0001), and that ®nancial constraints should not be a consideration ( p 0.0001).
Conclusion Ð Early prescribers diered from non-prescribers in their opinions about using Alzheimer's disease drugs. Future research should examine methods to promote nationally equitable and rational prescribing of new drugs.