Abstract
Background
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is commonly treated with memantine alone or in combination with cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEIs) or second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs), but the safety of these combinations remains unclear.
Objective
To characterize FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS)-based signals of disproportionate reporting associated with memantine-based combination therapies in patients with AD.
Methods
A disproportionality analysis was conducted using data from FAERS from 2014Q1 to 2025Q2 via the MY FAERS platform. Reporting odds ratios (RORs) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated to identify safety signals. Sensitivity analyses were conducted using ChEIs or SGAs monotherapy as reference groups to assess the robustness.
Results
2531 patients prescribed memantine were identified, comprising memantine monotherapy (n = 1965), memantine-ChEIs combination (n = 482), and memantine-SGAs combination (n = 84). Compared to memantine monotherapy, the memantine- ChEIs combination showed disproportionate reporting signals for skin (ROR, 3.46; 95% CI, 2.05–5.85), gastrointestinal (ROR, 2.53; 95% CI, 1.92–3.33), musculoskeletal (ROR, 2.13; 95% CI, 1.29–3.50), psychiatric (ROR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.27–2.00), general (ROR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.18–1.97), and nervous system disorders (ROR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.19–1.84). The memantine-SGAs combination was strongly associated with the signals of general (ROR, 3.97; 95% CI, 1.74–9.05), psychiatric (ROR, 2.14; 95% CI, 1.32–3.49), nervous system disorders (ROR, 2.03; 95% CI, 1.20–3.43), and hip fracture (ROR, 15.84; 95% CI, 3.72–67.41). Sensitivity analyses confirmed robustness across subgroups.
Conclusions
Memantine-based combination therapies were associated with distinct safety signals of disproportionate reporting compared with monotherapies. These findings should be interpreted as pharmacovigilance signals that warrant cautious interpretation and further validation in well-designed observational or prospective studies.
Keywords
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Supplementary Material
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