Clinical Trial Designs for RCTs focussing on the Treatment of Agitation in people with Alzheimer’s disease

Professor Clive Ballard Dr Byron Creese

University of Exeter, UK Guardian guide for 2018: Top 5 UK medical school

Penryn

ESI Risperidone Efficacy: BEHAVE-AD Ballard & Howard 2006 Nature Neuroscience Reviews Mean Target Difference p value 95% CI symptom from placebo

Risperidone p=0.03 Psychosis -0.79 -1.31 to -0.27 1mg

Risperidone p=0.0002 Aggression -0.84 -1.28 to -0.40 1mg

Risperidone p<0.0001 Aggression -1.50 -2.05 to -0.95 2mg STAR TRIAL: Zhong et al 2007 Quetpiapine Quetiapine Placebo Evaluation 200mg 100mg (N=92) (N=114) (N=120) PANSS-EC -5.7 (0.9) -4.9 (0.8) -3.9 (0.9) NS NPI (total) -9.7 (2.2) -8.9 (2.1) -8.2 (2.4) NS NPI -1.1 (0.5) -0.9 (0.5) -1.2 (0.5) NS (agitation) NPI -2.5 (0.9) -1.8 (0.8) -2.5 (0.9) NS (psychosis) CGIC 3.0 (0.2) 3.2 (0.2) 3.6 (0.2) NS Major Adverse Outcomes with over 6-12 weeks (FDA, Schneider et al 2005,Ballard et al 2009)

• Parkinsonism • Sedation • Gait disturbance • Increased respiratory infections • Oedema • Accelerated cognitive decline (2-4 fold) • Stroke (>3 fold) • Other thrombo-embolic events (up to 80%) • Mortality (1.5-1.7 fold) Possible Interpretations

• Therapies Not good enough • Small effect sizes • Targets unclear • Very heterogenous study populations • Challenges with trial design • Heterogenous trial populations • Low entry thresholds • Short duration • No non pharmacological interventions –doesn’t follow best practice • How rigorously have underlying medical causes and pain been excluded • High placebo response • Difficult to interpret major adverse events without a meta-analysis Longer duration Change from Baseline to 6 months DART AD Ballard et al PLOS Medicine 2008 DART AD: Differential Survival Ballard et al Lancet Neurology 2009

Differences in the survival rates in the DART-AD trial

Survival rate on placebo Survival rate on a

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0% 24 36 42 Survival rate on placebo 71% 59% 53% Survival rate on a antipsychotic 46% 30% 26% Number of months

The antipsychotic withdrawal trial (DART-AD): long-term follow-up of a randomised placebo-controlled trial. www.thelancet.com/neurology.09 Jan 2009 No Benefit and Accelerated Cognitive Decline with Quetiapine

rivastigmine quetiapine placebo ChI v plac Nlp v plac

Week 6 N=24 (15 N=26 (14 N=29 (17 completed SIB) completed completed SIB) SIB) Diff CMAI -8.3±18.4 -4.7±17.3 -6.2±17.2 T=0.4 P=0.67 T=0.3 P=0.74 Diff SIB +4.2±15.4 -10.5±14.8 +2.8±15.5 T=0.3 P=0.80 T=2.4 P=0.02* Week 26 N=24 (16 N=26 (15 N=29 (17 completed completed completed SIB) SIB) SIB) Diff SIB -1.1±21.1 -11.6±15.6 +2.3±18.1 T=0.5 P=0.61 T=2.3 P=0.03* Diff CMAI -10.5±20.4 -4.4±15.7 -7.9±16.6 T=0.5 P=0.62 T=0.1 P=0.87 AGIT-AD Ballard et al 2005 BMJ Novel Statistical Approaches Dextromethorphan/Quinidine (DM/Q) JAMA 2015

• 220 patient randomized to Dextromethorphan/Quinidine (DM/Q) or placebo in 10 week trial • Complicated 3:4 randomization design with re-randomization of placebo non-responders after 5 weeks • 88% completed trial • Significant benefits in agitation/aggression and CGIC, with benefits evident from week 1 • Falls and diarrhea were the main emergent adverse events (both <10%) Non-Pharmacological Therapy WHELD: Key Results Ballard et al Am J 2016 • AR significantly reduced antipsychotic use by 50% (OR 0.17, 95% CI 0.05 to 0.60, p=0.006). • AR and SI significantly reduced mortality (OR=0.36, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.57, p<0.001) • Benefits in mortality were achieved without a worsening of neuropsychiatric symptoms in people receiving AR and SI (-0.44, CI - 4.39 to 3.52, p=0.82) • EX significantly improved depression (-4.74, CI 0.76 to 8.72) and neuropsychiatric symptoms (-4.01, 95% CI -7.91 to -0.10, p=0.045). • SI significantly improved quality of life (6.04, 95% CI 0.24 to 11.84, p=0.042) • Combination of both SI and AR (p<0.04) and EX and AR (P<0.02) also significantly improved apathy Brief Psychosocial Therapy (BPST©) in clinical trials

• Previous clinical trials of psychosis and behavioural symptoms in Alzheimer’s Disease have experienced problems with high placebo response • It is important to make sure a new drug is being tested in people who genuinely need it • BPST© is designed to mirror best practice guidelines and reduce the placebo response by identifying people who improve with a non-drug approach • Only people who do not improve following BPST© progress to pharmacological treatment • In 3 previous trials of psychosis or agitation, has excluded 25% of people in run-in phase, but substantially reduced placebo response -with significant benefits compared to placebo in 2 of the trials (Howard et al 2007, Ballard et al 2009, Cummings et al 2014, Ballard et al 2017) • Currently being used in 3 further ongoing clinical trials How is the BPST© delivered?

• Two - four week intervention to enable enjoyable activities between a person with dementia and their caregiver for 10-15 minute a day

• Therapist works with a caregiver (care assistant or family member) over four sessions: • Training (Day 1): in person (30-45 minutes) • Follow-up (regular x 2*): by telephone (15 minutes) • Baseline (Day 14-28): in person (15 minutes) • Caregiver delivers the BPST© to the patient • Daily: 10-30 min • Completion of a simple diary • Follow-up calls support and reinforce the caregiver

*Schedules for each person with depend on screening period: Four weeks = weekly follow-up Two weeks = Follow up every 4 days Discontinuation Design [email protected] [email protected] Clear Criteria Cummings et al 2017: IPA criteria for agitation

• Patients must meet criteria for cognitive impairment and exhibit behaviours such as excessive activity and verbal or physical aggression severe enough to produce disability in social, or interpersonal functions, or activities of daily living. These symptoms should not be attributable to other psychiatric or medical disorders, suboptimal environment, or drug effects. Future validation studies are needed to confirm or revise the definition. This definition will facilitate clinical trials and other types of clinical and translational research. New IPA Criteria for Agitation in Cognitive Impairment. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308775448_New_IPA_Crit eria_for_Agitation_in_Cognitive_Impairment [ Modified CGIC CitAD: JAMA 2014

• OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the efficacy of citalopram for agitation in patients with Alzheimer disease. • DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: CitAD was a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel group trial with 186 patients with probable AD and clinically significant agitation • INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomized to receive a psychosocial intervention plus either citalopram (n = 94) or placebo (n = 92) for 9 weeks. Dosage began at 10 mg per day with planned titration to 30 mg per day over 3 weeks based on response and tolerability. CitAD: Results

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: • The NBRS-A estimated treatment difference (citalopram minus placebo) was -0.93 (95% CI, -1.80 to -0.06), P = .04. • CGIC showed 40% of citalopram participants having moderate or marked improvement from baseline compared with 26% of placebo recipients, with estimated treatment effect (odds ratio [OR] of being at or better than a given CGIC category) of 2.13 (95% CI, 1.23-3.69), P = .01 (Cohen’s d standardized effect size 0.36). • Participants who received citalopram showed significant improvement on the CMAI, total NPI, and caregiver distress scores but not on the NPI agitation subscale, • Worsening of cognition (-1.05 points; 95% CI, -1.97 to -0.13; P = .03) and QT interval prolongation (18.1 ms; 95% CI, 6.1-30.1; P = .01) were seen in the citalopram group. Central Rating 26 -020 Study: Pimavanserin Demonstrated Highly Significant Antipsychotic Efficacy (Lancet Feb 2014)

SAPS-PD (primary endpoint) (ITT, N=185; change from baseline)

* ** SAPS-PD Score and Change from Baseline Subgroup Analysis (OC) (ITT Analysis Set) Subgroup: Screening MMSE < 25

Change from Baseline Placebo Pimavanserin to Day 43

N 19 27

Mean (SE) -0.47 (1.89) -7.11 (1.81)

Median 2.00 -8.00 Improved trial design

• Clearer definition of agitation (and sub-syndromes) • Non-pharmacological interventions to reduce placebo response • Central rating of primary outcome to reduce impact of inter-rater variability • New CGIC for neuropsychiatric symptoms • Novel statistical approaches • Discontinuation element to establish continued benefit • Higher threshold for study entry • Longer duration of trial (particularly for adverse events) • Better targets (syndrome definition, molecular targets) Contacts

• Clive Ballard: [email protected] • Byron Creese: [email protected]