Management of Alzheimer’s Disease in Primary Care Practice: Relative Efficacy of Pharmacologic Options

An estimated 22% of adults 65 years of age or older have Alzheimer’s disease (AD).1 Because the incidence of AD doubles every 5 years after age 65, its prevalence is expected to increase as the United States population ages.2 The impact of this neurodegenerative disease encompasses a range of symptoms affecting cognition, function, and behavior.

Like many other diseases, there is a spectrum of continuum for AD, and there are different features at each stage. Artificially, the spectrum has been divided into mild, moderate, and severe stages. In the mild stage (Mini-Mental State Exa...