Antipsychotic Medicines and Alzheimer's, continued

I wrote in an earlier post about a new study concluding that the side effects of antipsychotic medicines often outweigh the advantages for Alzheimer’s patients. In some situations, modifying the dementia patient’s environment may reduce agitation or other behavioral symptoms without medications. “In many treatment contexts (home, nursing home, group living situations), behavioral management techniques are probably under-utilized and medications are probably over-utilized,” says Dr. Ray Ownby, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Patty Doherty of The Unforgettable Fund commented on the problems her family had when her father became agitated by “that guy,” who was his own reflection in the mirror. The dose of Risperdal needed to stop her father’s hallucinations made him sleep day and night. Instead, Patty’s family simply covered all the reflective surfaces in her dad’s environment.

Several web sites offer high level descriptions of environmental changes and behavioral management techniques for agitation, aggression, hallucinations and delusions in Alzheimer’s patients:

- Alzheimer’s Foundation of America
- U.S. National Institute on Aging
- The Alzheimer’s Association.

When environmental changes and behavioral management techniques aren’t enough, and antipsychotics aren’t well tolerated or effective, doctors may try medications approved for other uses. Several clinical trials are underway to determine how effective these drugs already on the market are in reducing agitation in dementia patients. These medications include:

-Cholinesterase inhibitors such as donepezil (Aricept – currently used for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease)
-Memantine (currently used for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease)
-Anticonvulsants such as Valproate and Depakote
-Antidepressants such as Citalopram (Celexa).

Tegretol, another anticonvulsant, is also sometimes prescribed for agitation.

In the meantime, research is underway to find new antipsychotic medications with fewer side effects. One such effort at The Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research at the Rockefeller University focuses on Fisher Center scientists’ discovery that some of the adverse effects of the current antipsychotic medicines stem from the fact that they block dopamine receptors. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger in the brain, and too little of it has been associated with Parkinson’s disease and some of the Parkinson’s-like side effects of antipsychotic medicines.

“Much of this research deals with a protein called DARPP-32, which is located inside brain cells involved in dopamine signaling,” explains Dr. William Netzer, a researcher at The Fisher Center and scientific liaison to the Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation and the Michel Stern Parkinson's Disease Research Foundation. “DARPP-32 is a master regulator protein, integrating numerous signals from its cellular environment and orchestrating the cell's responses. [Fisher Center Director] Dr. Greengard and colleagues found that DARPP-32 connects several major signaling systems in the brain. They are the dopamine, serotonin and glutamate systems, and each is involved at various levels in agitation and other behaviors. It may be possible to fine-tune the way DARPP-32 regulates these systems so that certain side effects of antipsychotic and anti-agitation drugs may be avoided, either by directly or indirectly affecting the functions of DARPP-32.”

I hope some of these existing drugs or new antipsychotic medicines will be prove to be more effective than current antipsychotics and environmental changes. In the meantime, Alzheimer’s patients, their caregivers and doctors are left with a trial and error process for managing psychiatric symptoms.

Comments

[Gail Rae Hudson]

Mona, thanks for the elaboration and links on environmental and behavioral management. I love the simple solution Patty Doherty's family came up with for the man in the mirror problem!
Good follow-up post.