Neuromodulation in Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD)

Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) affect up to 90% of people living with dementia and include agitation, hallucinations, delusions, sleep or mood changes. BPSD are challenging to treat and there are limited safe and effective pharmacologic treatments. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), Vagal nerve stimulation (VNS), ketamine, and cannabinoids are interventions that have proven effectiveness for other psychiatric conditions including depression and psychosis. More recently, many of these have also been investigated for the treatment of BPSD.

This presentation will review the current evidence for using ECT, TMS, ketamine, DBS, VNS, and cannabinoids for the treatment of BPSD. Out of these techniques, ECT has been the most studied and shows some benefit for the treatment of BPSD. TMS has also been studied in over 10 trials and most of these studies show an improvement in BPSD. The effect of TMS on apathy in dementia has been examined in multiple studies, the majority of which have shown benefit. DBS has shown some benefit for improving hallucinations in Parkinson disease dementia in one small RCT of six patients, and the procedure was well tolerated. VNS for BPSD has not been studied. Ketamine, in evidence from heterogeneous case reports, has shown to target three distinct behavioral disturbances, agitation, catatonia and depression, in dementia.

Cannabinoids, particularly dronabinol and nabilone, have also been investigated in a number of RCTs and show mixed results for treating agitation in dementia. Sedation was the most common side effect reported but often did not result in discontinuation of therapy.

In conclusion, neuromodulation has increasing evidence for the treatment of BPSD and most studies show good safety profiles. Larger and more rigorous trials are needed to further investigate the effectiveness, safety, and practicality of these interventions in this population. This presentation will summarize the effects of these various interventions, their side effects, doses used, and durations of treatment.