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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| A review and commentary on a sample of 15 UK guidelines for the drug treatment of Alzheimer's disease | | Author(s) | Richard J Harvey |
| Journal title | International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol 14, no 4, April 1999 |
| Pages | pp 249-256 |
| Keywords | Dementia ; Drugs ; Standards of provision ; Literature reviews. |
| Annotation | There has been widespread development of clinical guidelines for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) since the introduction of donepezil in the UK in 1997. These have been developed nationally, regionally, locally and by independent groups. An independent review of guidelines available in the public domain was commissioned to provide an overview of the range and variability in the recommendations being made. Fifteen sets of guidelines from a variety of sources was reviewed in a standardised way to extract recommendations being made on the following: diagnosis; investigations; the evidence base of the recommendations; initiation of drug treatment; monitoring and dose adjustment; and decision-making on maintenance or discontinuation of treatment. None of the documents fulfilled criteria for high-quality evidence-based guidelines. Substantial variability was evident in all areas of recommendation. All the guidelines appeared to be based on consensus opinion. Only one incorporated a statement of potential conflicts of interest affecting the working group who developed the guidelines. Future guidelines will need to have a better evidence base, be nationally supported, and remove regional inequalities in health care. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-990825245 A |
| Classmark | EA: LLD: 583: 64A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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