Pharmacoeconomics of dementia

Pharmacoeconomics is a new discipline with its own terminology and techniques, little known to most clinicians but destined to become more important to them and to their patients. This article reviews basic approaches in pharmacoeconomics; current knowledge of costs related to dementia; assessment of quality of life in patients with cognitive impairment; models of relationships among degree of cognitive impairment, caregiver burden, and health care utilization; existing pharmacoeconomic guidelines for drug studies; pharmacoeconomic studies of tacrine, a drug used in Alzheimer disease; and further work needed to advance the critical area of pharmacoeconomic studies in dementia.