Improving clinical descriptions to understand the effects of dementia treatment: Consensus recommendations

Objectives: To recommend how the description of clinically detectable treatment effects might be improved for anti-dementia drug trials. Method: Consensus conference, with review of available evidence. Results: We suggest widespread, systematic, qualitative studies, based on prospective observations such as the clinicians' narrative descriptions of patient's changes used in the Clinician's Interview-Based Impressions of Change (CIBIC-Plus), plus caregiver input. The identification of patient and caregiver expectations, and an understanding of how these expectations are met, are proposed as priorities for future study. Conclusion: Better descriptions of treatment effects can enhance our understanding of both clinical meaningfulness and cholinergic function in the brain.