James Leverenz, MD: Therapeutic Options in Dementia and Related Psychosis

“I keep my fingers crossed [for amyloid therapies], but to say that I have the magic pill or to [identify] the critical part, I’m keeping an open mind.”

Dementia, and Alzheimer disease particularly, has proven to be a difficult-to-treat patient population of patients for quite some time. With failure after failure, even the slightest bit of possibility can bring physicians to hope for success in significantly slowing the disease down.

In a conversation with NeurologyLive, James Leverenz, MD, director, Cleveland Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, Cleveland Clinic, spoke to some of the success that has been had in the field. Namely, in the treatment of the symptoms of Alzheimer, such as agitation and psychosis. In these areas, Leverenz described, there has been some success, with varying results between patients with either Parkinson disease dementia or Alzheimer disease dementia.

Additionally, Leverenz discussed the ongoing therapeutic development in the space, specifically noting his remaining hope for the amyloid-targeted treatments which have shown limited success. Recently, Biogen reversed its decision to halt the development of one such therapy, aducanumab, and will bring it forward to the FDA after conducting additional analysis. As well, the regulatory agency in China recently approved the first therapy in more than 15 years, oligomannate.

Leverenz spoke to what may come in the future and expressed his desire to remain open-minded in this area of therapeutic innovation which has longed for an option for its patients.