Adverse events of Alzheimer's disease patients treated with memantine-based therapies: A disproportionality analysis of the FAERS database based on the MY FAERS platform

BackgroundAlzheimer'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.ObjectiveTo characterize FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS)-based signals of disproportionate reporting associated with memantine-based combination therapies in patients with AD.MethodsA 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.Results2531 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.ConclusionsMemantine-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.