Prazosin for Agitation in Alzheimer's Disease

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Trial end date: 2022-02-28
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

The study evaluates the effects of Prazosin on agitation in adults with Alzheimer's disease.

Two thirds of the participants will participate in the medication portion, while one third will participate in the placebo portion

• Phase: Phase 2
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS)
• Collaborators: Alzheimer's Association; National Institute on Aging (NIA); VA Puget Sound Health Care System
• Treatments: Prazosin

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Males and females with probable or possible AD by NINCDS-ADRDA criteria utilizing medical history; medical records review; and documented physical, neurological, and other examinations and laboratory tests. At Screening, physical, neurological and other examinations; and laboratory tests will be performed as possible and tolerated by the agitated participants. Brain imaging is not a requirement.

2. Participants must reside in either a participating LTC or at home with full-time caregiving.

3. Participants must have disruptive agitation significant enough to disrupt caregiving and, in the opinion of the Site Principal Investigator, to justify further treatment. Disruptive agitation, defined as having any combination of the following target behaviors, a) irritability, b) physically and/or verbally aggressive behavior, c) physically resistive to necessary care, and/or d) pressured motor activity (e.g., pressured pacing), must have occurred nearly daily during the previous week and at least intermittently for 4 weeks prior to screening, documented on the Behavioral Inclusion Criteria Checklist at Screening. Target behaviors may be any combination of the listed domains as long as they meet the above-described criteria for frequency and severity.

4. Psychotropic medication, if used, should be stable for at least 2 weeks prior to randomization.

5. If taking cholinesterase inhibitor and/or memantine, must be on stable dose(s) for 3 months prior to randomization.

6. During the week before randomization, the above-described behaviors must be rated as of at least "moderate" severity. These behaviors must be problematic in that they cause participant and caregiver distress and/or interfere with essential care or disrupt their living environment.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. History of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder according to the criteria of the most current version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

2. Other neurodegenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease, or cerebral tumor.

3. Dementia other than probable or possible AD per NINCDS-ADRDA criteria, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) dementia, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, frontotemporal dementia, multiple cerebral infarctions, or normal pressure hydrocephalus.

4. Current treatment for seizure disorder. (Note: anticonvulsants prescribed for disruptive agitation are acceptable).

5. Abnormal laboratory values with clinical significance in the opinion of the site Principal Investigator.

6. Current unstable medical illness including delirium, worsening congestive heart failure, unstable angina, recent myocardial infarction (within the past 3 months), acute infectious disease, severe renal or hepatic failure, severe respiratory disease, metastatic cancer, or other conditions that, in the Site Principal Investigator's opinion, could interfere with the analyses of safety and efficacy in this study.

7. Bedbound; participants may be ambulatory or use a wheelchair.

8. Absence of any comprehensible language.

9. Participation in another clinical trial for an investigational agent and took at least one dose of study drug (unless unblinded to placebo) within 12 weeks prior to screening. (The end of a previous investigational trial is defined as the date of the last dose of an investigational agent).

10. Preexisting recurrent hypotension (systolic blood pressure [BP] <110).

11. Preexisting orthostatic hypotension (>20 mmHg drop in systolic BP following 2 minutes of standing posture [or sitting if unable to stand], accompanied by dizziness, lightheadedness, or syncope).

12. A 2-week washout is required prior to BL for the following exclusionary medications:

prazosin or other alpha-1 blocker, sildenafil, vardenafil, tadalafil, and avanafil.

13. Women of childbearing potential (must be at least 2 years post-menopausal or surgically sterile for inclusion).

14. The participant may not be an immediate family member of personnel directly affiliated with this study, the study site or study funding agency. Immediate family member is defined as a spouse, parent, child, or sibling, any of whom may be related by blood, adoption, or marriage.

15. Participants whom the Site Principal Investigator deems to be otherwise unsuitable for participation.