There is no proven effective treatments for prion diseases, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), yet. Current therapy for prion disease is aimed at symptomatic treatment to make your loved one as comfortable as possible. We treat depression often with SSRIs, such as citalopram or escitalopram. If severe or debilitating, myoclonus often responds to low doses of clonazepam or anti-epileptic agents such as levetiracetam or valproic acid. If needed, agitation or bothersome recurrent visual hallucinations can be managed by small doses of atypical antipsychotics, such as quetiapine. Quetiapine is often preferred because it has less parkinsonian effects than some other antipsychotics. Seizures are very uncommon in CJD. If present, however, they might be treated with general antiepileptic agents. Genetic counseling may be useful in the case of classic or familial prion disease, due to the risk of familial transmission.

Clinical Research

Participating in a research study helps physician-scientists to better understand the disease and develop new treatments. If any of the studies below looks interesting to you, talk with your medical team or contact the study team to see if it is appropriate for you.

• Early Diagnosis of Human Prion Disease study
• New Approaches to Dementia Heterogeneity study
• ClinicalTrials.gov: US National Institutes of Health online search tool of federally and privately supported clinical trials conducted in the United States and around the world.