Conclusions from Clinician Comments on Unmet Needs in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease

There is a critical need for better pharmacotherapy to slow or reverse disease progression and address neuropsychiatric symptoms.

• Slowing the progression of the disease is still an unmet need. There also needs to be better pharmacotherapy to address neuropsychiatric symptoms, and a better screening tool to identify these symptoms would be beneficial.
• There is a need for medications that can treat and stop the disease.
• We need medications that can reverse disease progression with no serious side effects and are affordable.
• Significant unmet needs persist in finding medications that can slow disease progression, address worsening depression, agitation, and psychosis due to dementia.

Caregiver education and support are essential, as caregivers often report unmet needs more than patients do.

• The most common unmet needs are reported by caregivers and not patients themselves, given the lack of insight all patients with Alzheimer's disease have. These needs include first and foremost educating the caregivers as to the disease and its prognosis. This includes discussing how common neuropsychiatric symptoms manifest and how non-pharmacological interventions are first-line treatment. This entails knowing who the patient is (their background), and therefore tailoring the response to their unmet need (which is manifesting as the 'behavior') based on this. If all else fails, then medication should be considered. Other unmet needs include, as mentioned, better medications that can alter the course of the disease pathology as well as additional and affordable resources for the caregivers. Caregiving, in my opinion, is one of the most difficult jobs on the planet, and there should be more we can do for them.
• Significant unmet needs include providing additional support for patients through caregivers and supportive housing to manage the progressively worsening impairment.

Better screening tools and safer medications with fewer side effects are needed.

• There needs to be a better screening tool to identify neuropsychiatric symptoms.
• We still need to understand how to help patients and significantly slow progression, not just rely on medications with risky side effects like cerebral bleeds and swelling.
• We need medications that can reverse disease progression with no serious side effects and are affordable.

Addressing neuropsychiatric symptoms and providing resources for both patients and caregivers are crucial.

• Better pharmacotherapy is needed to address neuropsychiatric symptoms.
• It's important to discuss how common neuropsychiatric symptoms manifest and use non-pharmacological interventions as first-line treatments.
• Significant unmet needs include finding medications that can slow disease progression, address worsening depression, agitation, and psychosis, and provide additional support through caregivers and supportive housing to manage worsening impairment.

Check out the key takeaways from this discussion linked here https://doctorunite.com/passthrough/seedit_post/214903/