Elaine Peskind, MD, and Murray Raskind, MD, received a $4.8 million award from the National Institute on Aging (through the UCSD-based Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study) to lead a randomized controlled multicenter trial of prazosin for disruptive agitation in Alzheimer’s disease.

Agitation is extremely common among patients with Alzheimer’s and leads to distress of both the patient and the caregiver, difficulty in giving effective care, and can even pose a threat to the patient. Prazosin is a medication that is commonly used to treat people with high blood pressure. Research with prazosin has shown that it may be effective in treating behavioral problems by reducing excess adrenaline effects in the brain.

The study will be performed at 20 community long-term care facilities around the country. A novel feature of the trial will be the collection of agitation data through the use of wrist actigraphy, a non-invasive method of monitoring human rest and activity cycles.