Brexpiprazole for treating agitation in different groups of people with Alzheimer’s dementia: a plain language summary

What is this summary about? Alzheimer’s dementia is a brain disorder in which people have a gradual decline of their thinking, memory, and behavior. Many people with Alzheimer’s dementia have agitation, which includes restlessness, repetitive questions, wandering, shouting, swearing, kicking, and more. People with Alzheimer’s dementia may differ from one another. For example, people may live at home, in nursing homes, or elsewhere. Some people have mild difficulty with thinking and memory while others have more severe difficulty. People may also have other symptoms besides agitation, and may be taking different medications. Clinical studies show that a medication called brexpiprazole can improve agitation in people with Alzheimer’s dementia. In this summary, researchers combined information from two clinical studies to look at the effects of brexpiprazole in 13 different groups of people with Alzheimer’s dementia. What are the key takeaways? Brexpiprazole reduced agitation in almost all groups of people compared to placebo. This included people living at home or in a nursing home, with milder or more severe difficulty with thinking and memory, with other symptoms besides agitation, and taking some other medications. There were no clear differences in side effects across the different groups of people. What are the main conclusions reported by the researchers? These results show that brexpiprazole may help many different groups of people with agitation in Alzheimer’s dementia. This information can help doctors, caregivers, and people with dementia to make informed treatment choices. Clinical trial number: NCT01862640,NCT03548584