Dementia Care Research and Psychosocial Factors

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Alzheimer's Disease Research
• Clinical Communication

Background:

• Lecanemab, an anti-amyloid antibody, offers modest cognitive benefits in early Alzheimer's disease.
• Potential adverse events include amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA-E/H), which can be severe.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how clinicians communicate the benefits and risks of lecanemab to patients and caregivers.
• To support informed decision-making regarding anti-amyloid therapy.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with 27 clinicians prescribing anti-amyloid therapy.
• Hybrid inductive-deductive thematic analysis of interview data.

Main Results:

• Clinicians employ diverse communication strategies, using analogies and trial data, while noting lecanemab is not a cure.
• Risk communication, especially regarding ARIA, varied in emphasis.
• Patient-specific factors (comorbidities, caregiver support, patient hopes/fears) significantly influenced communication.

Conclusions:

• Clinicians utilize varied communication methods for lecanemab, adapting to individual patient contexts.
• These findings can inform interventions to enhance communication and shared decision-making for Alzheimer's treatment.