Copyright
©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Nov 19, 2025; 15(11): 109581
Published online Nov 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i11.109581
Published online Nov 19, 2025. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i11.109581
Agitation in Alzheimer’s disease: From assessment to therapeutics
Antonio L Teixeira, Thiago M Cordeiro, Gabriel A de Erausquin, Biggs Institute, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX 78229, United States
Youngran Kim, Department of Management, Policy and Community Health, School of Public Health, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Natalia P Rocha, Department of Neurology, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Author contributions: Teixeira AL, Cordeiro TM, and Rocha NP conceptualized this manuscript; Teixeira AL and Rocha NP wrote the first draft of the manuscript; Kim Y, Cordeiro TM, and de Erausquin GA revised and modified the manuscript; and all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging, No. 1R21AG091282.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Antonio L Teixeira, Biggs Institute, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 8300 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, TX 78229, United States. altexr@gmail.com
Received: May 15, 2025
Revised: June 9, 2025
Accepted: September 22, 2025
Published online: November 19, 2025
Processing time: 172 Days and 7.1 Hours
Revised: June 9, 2025
Accepted: September 22, 2025
Published online: November 19, 2025
Processing time: 172 Days and 7.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: In Alzheimer’s disease, agitation is a clinically relevant neuropsychiatric syndrome managed by non-pharmacological and pharmacological approaches. Ruling out delirium, identifying and addressing environmental triggers (e.g., change in caregiver) are fundamental therapeutic steps. Antipsychotics (e.g., brexpiprazole, risperidone) are commonly used in acute agitation, especially in the context of potential harm to self and others. For chronic agitation, serotonin-selective reuptake inhibitors (e.g., escitalopram) are preferred.