OBJECTIVES: To examine the treatment landscape in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by physician-determined severity level and assess factors physicians most value, and will expect from, new disease modifying therapies (DMT).

METHODS: Data were drawn from the Adelphi Real World AD Disease Specific Programme^™, a cross-sectional survey with retrospective data collection of primary care physicians and specialists, and their patients with MCI/AD in Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States between December 2022 and March 2024. Physicians reported data on treatment patterns split by physician-determined disease severity (MCI, or mild, moderate, or severe AD), reasons for prescribing current treatment, and attributes they would most like new DMTs to address. Analyses were descriptive.

RESULTS: Overall, 779 physicians provided data from a patient record form for 5,551 patients. Of these, 765 physicians also completed an attitudinal survey. Physicians determined 2,017 patients to have MCI, 935 mild AD, 1,684 moderate AD, and 785 severe AD. Median (interquartile range) number of treatments per patient at survey was 2.0 (1.0 – 3.0) with mean (standard deviation) time on current treatment at data capture of 81.2 (93.0) weeks. Overall, 50% of patients were receiving acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. The most common reasons for current therapy choice were slowing disease progression (81%–88%) and preserving short term memory (30%–41%). The attributes physicians would most value in new DMTs were improved quality of life (QoL) (64%) and slowing disease progression (49%). These were also highest ranked when physicians suggested likely attributes for new DMTs (improved QoL: 57%, slowing disease progression: 61%).

CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that physicians used currently approved medications to treat key symptoms of MCI/AD. Expectations for effective DMTs include slowing of disease progression in MCI/AD and improved QoL.