Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: ACAD) today announced the launch of MoreThanMemoryLoss.com, a new website with educational resources designed to help caregivers and people living with dementia to learn more about dementia-related hallucinations and delusions.
“As a leading, national caregiver organization, we hear from dementia caregivers every day about the challenges they experience caring for loved ones with behavioral symptoms of dementia. This new resource provides information and support to address these symptoms that can have a devastating impact on families,” said John Schall, Chief Executive Officer, Caregiver Action Network.
MoreThanMemoryLoss.com was developed following extensive caregiver research and input from advocacy organizations. The site offers educational and actionable resources for visitors, including a doctor discussion guide, a dementia-related hallucinations and delusions fact sheet and an adapted personal story from a caregiver coping with a loved one’s experience of these symptoms.
Dementia affects 8 million people in the U.S. and its prevalence is expected to increase as the population ages.1-4 Approximately 30 percent, or 2.4 million people in the U.S., experience dementia-related psychosis and only half of them, or 1.2 million, are diagnosed.1,5 Symptoms of dementia-related psychosis include hallucinations, when someone experiences things that are not there, such as seeing or hearing things that others do not and delusions, when someone believes things that are not true, such as people are talking about you (paranoia), or fear that someone is stealing from you. These symptoms are also very distressing for family and caregivers and may be associated with increased risk of aggressive behavior in dementia patients.6 Hallucinations and delusions can cause a person to lose touch with reality, and their loved ones to lose touch with them.
“Caregivers often believe their job is to protect the image of their loved one and to hide the symptoms of dementia-related psychosis from others,” said Charmaine Lykins, Senior Vice President, Global Product Planning and Chief Marketing Officer, at Acadia Pharmaceuticals. “MoreThanMemoryLoss.com is an educational resource dedicated to providing caregivers with information and tools needed to start important conversations about dementia-related hallucinations and delusions with their loved one’s healthcare providers.”
Visit https://www.morethanmemoryloss.com to learn more, and sign up for additional educational resources.
About Dementia-Related Psychosis
Approximately 8 million people in the United States are living with dementia, a condition with a core feature of declining cognition (changes in memory, decision-making abilities, language, etc.) resulting in functional impairment. Dementia is a manifestation of an underlying condition which is often progressive and neurodegenerative in nature.7 In addition to cognitive decline, dementing illnesses almost universally lead to neuropsychiatric symptoms, including hallucinations, delusions, and changes in behavior.
It is estimated that 2.4 million Americans (or 30% of people with dementia) experience dementia-related hallucinations and delusions. These symptoms may be frequent and severe and may recur over time. A hallucination is defined as a perception-like experience that occurs without an external stimulus and is sensory (seen, heard, felt, tasted, sensed) in nature. A delusion is defined as a false, fixed belief that is resolutely held despite evidence to the contrary. Dementia-related psychosis occurs in many types of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, Parkinson’s disease dementia, vascular dementia, and frontotemporal dementia. Serious consequences have been associated with psychosis in patients with dementia, such as repeated hospital admissions, increased likelihood of nursing home placement, progression of dementia, and increased risk of morbidity and mortality.8
About Acadia Pharmaceuticals
Acadia is trailblazing breakthroughs in neuroscience to elevate life. For more than 25 years we have been working at the forefront of healthcare to bring vital solutions to people who need them most. We developed and commercialized the first and only approved therapy for hallucinations and delusions associated with Parkinson’s disease psychosis. Our late-stage development efforts are focused on dementia-related psychosis, negative symptoms of schizophrenia and Rett syndrome, and in early-stage clinical research we are exploring novel approaches to pain management, and cognition and neuropsychiatric symptoms in central nervous system disorders. For more information, visit us at www.acadia-pharm.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
References
1Plassman BL, Langa KM, Fisher GG, et al. Prevalence of dementia in the United States: the aging, demographics, and memory study. Neuroepidemiology. 2007;29(1-2):125-132.
2Goodman RA, Lochner KA, Thambisetty M, et al. Prevalence of dementia subtypes in United States Medicare fee—for—service beneficiaries, 2011—2013. Alzheimers Dement. 2017;13(1):28—37.
3Hebert LE, Weuve J, Scherr PA, et al. Alzheimer disease in the United States (2010-2050) estimated using the 2010 census. Neurology. 2013;80(19):1778-1783.
4Alzheimer’s Association. 2020 Alzheimer’s disease facts and figures. Alzheimer’s Dement. 2020;16(3):391-485
52017 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures and Acadia market research.
6Lopez O, et al. Psychiatric symptoms vary with the severity of dementia in probable Alzheimer’s disease. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2003;153:346-353.
7Dementia. (2019, September 19). Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia.
8Connors MH et al. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2018;26(3). Peters ME et al. Am J Psychiatry 2015;172(5). Haupt M et al. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 1996;11(11). Naimark D et al. J Am Geriatr Soc 1996;44(3). Stern Y et al. Neurology 1994;44(12).
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Contacts:
Deb Kazenelson
818-395-3043
media@acadia-pharm.com
