How Alzheimer's Care Has Changed During COVID-19

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Ronald C. Peterson, MD, PhD: This is a challenging time for all of us, especially for patients with Alzheimer's disease, their care providers, and the clinicians who care for people with Alzheimer's disease.

You can imagine a situation where someone has difficulty perhaps comprehending the world around him or her in general, and then throw a COVID infectious disease situation on that particular environment, and you have a complicated situation.

In particular, people with Alzheimer's disease may have difficulty comprehending what's going on around them. When we start talking about things like social distancing, wearing a mask, and frequent handwashing, they may not understand exactly why we're doing this or whether they should be doing it. They may forget to continue to do it or take their mask off frequently.

Richard S. Isaacson, MD: In my practice, I'm talking to caregivers, partners, loved ones, husbands, and wives all the time. Being stuck in the house for weeks and months on end is tricky. There's more agitation and more anxiety. The neuropsychiatric component of Alzheimer's is something that we really have to manage.

Peterson:Evaluating a new patient, with perhaps Alzheimer's disease being the diagnosis, can be particularly challenging at this time.