A pharmacovigilance study to determine risk of mortality in male and female patients with Alzheimer's disease using Rivastigmine

Abstract

The study employed the Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database to study the impact of Rivastigmine, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (AChI), on patient mortality. The study determines the mortality cases associated with rivastigmine, utilizing both the entire database and exclusively the AChI class as reference groups, stratified by gender. The results show a significant correlation between rivastigmine and patient mortality, with a greater number of deaths when compared to other medications in the class (ROR = 11.11; 95% CI = 7.40 – 16.70). Even when looking at the entire database, rivastigmine was still associated with a higher risk of mortality, and this was most pronounced for female patients (ROR = 4.47; 95% CI = 3.94 – 5.06). For male patients, however, the ROR = 9.67; (95% CI = 6.12 – 15.29) when comparing within the class, ROR = 2.65 (95% CI = 2.28 – 3.10) when comparing with the full database.