This study demonstrates that in the real-world setting, newly diagnosed AD patients who used either rivastigmine or donepezil for the first time, had similar persistency patterns. About half of the AD patients who started either of the two study drugs discontinued or switched their initial drug therapy within 1 year. Patients who used CNS medi- cations before they initiated their rivastigmine or donepezil were more likely to discontinue or switch their medications than patients who did not use any CNS medications.
It is recommended that ways of improving con- tinuation (e.g. patient education or follow-up strate- gies) and estimation of the long-term economic im- pact of continuation with cholinesterase inhibitors on AD treatment costs should be investigated in future studies