Amita R. Patel, MD, CMD, MHA, CPE

Treatment does not end with a prescription. The panel closes by examining who owns follow-up care, and why caregivers remain the true cornerstone of managing Alzheimer's agitation over time.

When first-line therapy falls short, the decision to augment or switch is rarely straightforward. The panel examines that decision-making process alongside neurology's evolving role in managing agitation.

Specialty care approaches shared decision-making differently, and the stakes extend beyond a single symptom. The panel closes this discussion by debating whether treating agitation can shift disease trajectory itself.

With two on-label options now available, the choice between them comes down to comorbidities, psychosis, and risk. The panel also examines how long-term care rating pressures complicate that decision in practice.

Longer follow-up and real-world claims data add context that pivotal trials alone cannot provide. The panel examines both, alongside how monitoring for response actually happens in daily practice.

A second on-label option carries its own distinct mechanism and its own trial history. The panel details how this antipsychotic therapy was studied and what its data actually show.

Safety data, not just efficacy, determines how comfortable clinicians feel prescribing. The panel reviews the safety profile, dosing schedule, and drug interactions relevant to a newer agitation therapy.

Pivotal trial data can reshape when clinicians feel comfortable starting treatment. The panel walks through the short- and long-term study results behind a newer agitation therapy in detail.

Two on-label options are not enough for every patient. The panel weighs the field's remaining unmet needs against the biological rationale behind a newer, non-antipsychotic approach to treatment.

Decades of off-label prescribing for agitation associated with dementia due to Alzheimer’s are colliding with new evidence and new regulation. The panel examines why practice has lagged behind the data, and what is now changing.

Before any prescription is written, non-pharmacologic strategies and a structured framework guide the panel's approach to agitation, alongside a biological explanation for why redirection so often fails.

Agitation does not stay contained to the patient. The panel examines the data linking agitation to caregiver burden, and the communication gaps that complicate coordinating care across specialties.

Distinguishing agitation from depression, anxiety, and psychosis shapes everything that follows in treatment. The panel walks through the clinical differences and where formal screening scales genuinely fit into daily practice.

Agitation eventually affects nearly every patient with Alzheimer's disease, yet it rarely looks like simple aggression. The panel outlines how common it is, the many forms it takes, and why it so often goes unrecognized.

Tardive dyskinesia significantly impacts older adults in long-term care, necessitating timely recognition and effective treatment strategies for improved quality of life.