Efficacy of pharmacotherapy and non-pharmacotherapy of Alzheimer dementia: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia worldwide. Despite the publication of numerous systematic reviews and meta-analyses that have summarized the evidence associated with pharmacotherapies (PTs) and non-pharmacotherapies (NPTs) for the wide range of interventions available for AD treatment, their comparative safety and efficacy remains insufficiently defined.

METHODS: Systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) will be selected according to the following criteria: conducted in elderly patients aged 60 years or older with AD living in community or institutionalized settings, applied pairwise meta-analysis (PMA) or network meta-analysis (NMA) approaches providing pooled relative treatment effects for at least 1 pair of PTs or NPTs, and providing at least 1 of the following outcomes for patients/caregivers: cognitive, functional status, behavior, quality of life (QoL), and caregiver stress or burden. All article screening, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment will be completed independently by 2 reviewers. Relative treatment rankings will be reported with mean ranks and surface under the cumulative ranking curves.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: We will determine the most efficacious treatment strategies for AD patients from the most highly ranked treatments. These results will help to guide clinical decision-making and improve patient care.