Objective: The care of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has a significant impact on the life of caregivers.  Some of the major daily tasks for caregivers are the administering and management of patients’ medications.  The aims of the present study were to evaluate the current state of administering and management of medications by caregivers, and the usefulness of medicated patches for improving compliance.
Methods: We sent questionnaires to 62 caregivers of AD patients, and 60 responses were analyzed (response rate: 96.8%).
Results: We found that approximately half of caregivers had some difficulties with administering and managing medications.  A total of 80% of caregivers took less than 3 min to administer and manage medications.  Approximately half of caregivers responded that patches were useful, but 15% stated that current medications were not the cause of difficulties.  These respondents were concerned that patches may result in adverse skin reactions.
Conclusions: The results of this survey indicate that caregivers do not have difficulties with administering and managing medications, and further concern is needed about the usefulness of medicated patches.