Agitation and Irritability in Alzheimer’s Disease: Evidenced-Based Treatments and the Black-Box Warning

More than five million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and this number is expected to triple by 2050. While impairments in cognition, particularly memory, are typically the defining features of the clinical syndrome, behavioral symptoms are extremely common, affecting up to 90 % of patients. Behavioral symptoms in AD can be difficult to manage and may require a combination of non-pharmacological and pharmacological approaches. The latter is complicated by FDA “black-box warnings” for the medication classes most often used to target these symptoms, and currently there are initiatives in place to limit their use. In this review, we describe common behavioral symptoms of AD—with a particular focus on the challenging symptoms of “agitation” and “irritability”—and discuss evidence-based approaches to their management. Ultimately, multidimensional approaches must be tailored to the patient and their environment, though evidence-based practices should define the treatment of agitation and irritability in AD.