Alzheimer's Disease - Dementia

• Diagnosis, Imaging, Screening
• General Information
• Guidelines
• Internet Sites
• Risk Factors
• Risk Reduction
• Treatment

Treatment is updated with the most recent articles listed on top.
To view only the last month's articles for the other sub-topics, go to our Monthly Online Newsletters page

If you have any questions regarding our Search Reports, please contact us at info@infomedsearch.com.

Alzheimer's Disease - Dementia

NIH - Medical Encyclopedia Alzheimer's Disease

"Alzheimer's disease (AD), one form of dementia, is a progressive, degenerative brain disease. It affects memory, thinking, and behavior. Memory impairment is a necessary feature for the diagnosis of this or any type of dementia. Change in one of the following areas must also be present: language, decision-making ability, judgment, attention, and other areas of mental function and personality. The rate of progression is different for each person. If AD develops rapidly, it is likely to continue to progress rapidly. If it has been slow to progress, it will likely continue on a slow course. There are two types of AD -- early onset and late onset. In early onset AD, symptoms first appear before age 60. Early onset AD is much less common, accounting for only 5-10% of cases. However, it tends to progress rapidly. The brain tissue shows "neurofibrillary tangles" (twisted fragments of protein within nerve cells that clog up the cell), "neuritic plaques" (abnormal clusters of dead and dying nerve cells, other brain cells, and protein), and "senile plaques" (areas where products of dying nerve cells have accumulated around protein). Although these changes occur to some extent in all brains with age, there are many more of them in the brains of people with AD."

Highlighted Articles

Education and Alzheimer disease without dementia: support for the cognitive reserve hypothesis. (Neurology. 2007)

"CONCLUSIONS: Regardless of the neuropathologic criteria used, education is predictive of dementia status among individuals with neuropathologic Alzheimer disease. These results support the theory that individuals with greater cognitive reserve, as reflected in years of education, are better able to cope with AD brain pathology without observable deficits in cognition."

Nutritional factors, cognitive decline, and dementia. (Brain Res Bull. 2006)

"Nutritional factors and nutritional deficiencies have been repeatedly associated with cognitive impairment. … Deficiencies of several B vitamins have been associated with cognitive dysfunction in many observational studies. More recently, deficiencies of folate (B(9)) and cobalamine (B(12)) have been studied in relation to hyperhomocysteinemia as potential determinants of cognitive impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer's disease (AD). A small number of studies assessed the association between intake of macronutrients and cognitive function or dementia. Among the others, the intake of fatty acids and cholesterol has received particular attention. Although the results are not always consistent, most studies have reported a protective role of dietary intakes of poly- and mono-unsaturated fatty acids against cognitive decline and AD."

Exercise Is Associated with Reduced Risk for Incident Dementia among Persons 65 Years of Age and Older (Annals of Internal Medicine 2006)

"Conclusion: These results suggest that regular exercise is associated with a delay in onset of dementia and Alzheimer disease, further supporting its value for elderly persons."

Continue your InfoMedSearch research with our previous InfoMedLinks. Start with InfoMedLinks 2008.

Searching for more specific information related to your condition? InfoMedSearch researchers can search and provide you with a custom report. We can also keep you updated. Great Price! Check out our Search Services page. Use our experience to find the important medical information you need. Help protect you and your family's health.

Custom Search

Alzheimer's Disease - Dementia

Daily Treatment Report

Cognitive Therapy-CBT-Psychotherapy

Device Therapy

Drug Side-Effects and Interactions

Syncope and Its Consequences in Patients With Dementia Receiving Cholinesterase Inhibitors (Arch Intern Med. 2009) “Conclusions Use of cholinesterase inhibitors is associated with increased rates of syncope, bradycardia, pacemaker insertion, and hip fracture in older adults with dementia. The risk of these previously underrecognized serious adverse events must be weighed carefully against the drugs' generally modest benefits.”

The dementia antipsychotic withdrawal trial (DART-AD): long-term follow-up of a randomised placebo-controlled trial (The Lancet Neurology 2009) "There is an increased long-term risk of mortality in patients with AD who are prescribed antipsychotic medication; these results further highlight the need to seek less harmful alternatives for the long-term treatment of neuropsychiatric symptoms in these patients."

Drugs

Effects of Antihypertensive Therapy on Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer's Disease (American Journal of Hypertension 2009) “Conclusions These results suggest an association between antihypertensive therapy, a lower decrease in mean MMSE and a lower cognitive decline over time in AD.“

Drugs With Anticholinergic Properties, Cognitive Decline, and Dementia in an Elderly General Population (Arch Intern Med. 2009) “A 1.4- to 2-fold higher risk of cognitive decline was observed for those who continuously used anticholinergic drugs but not for those who had discontinued use. The risk of incident dementia over the 4-year follow-up period was also increased in continuous users (hazard ratio [HR], 1.65; 95% CI, 1.00-2.73) but not in those who discontinued the use of anticholinergic drugs (HR, 1.28; 95% CI, 0.59-2.76). Conclusions Elderly people taking anticholinergic drugs were at increased risk for cognitive decline and dementia. Discontinuing anticholinergic treatment was associated with a decreased risk. Physicians should carefully consider prescription of anticholinergic drugs in elderly people, especially in the very elderly and in persons at high genetic risk for cognitive disorder.”

Valproate preparations for agitation in dementia. (Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009) “AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: The updated review corroborates the earlier findings that valproate preparations are ineffective in treating agitation among demented patients, and that valproate therapy is associated with an unacceptable rate of adverse effects. More research on the use of valproate preparations for agitation of people with dementia is needed. On the basis of current evidence, valproate therapy cannot be recommended for management of agitation in dementia.”

Effects of Antihypertensive Therapy on Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer's Disease. (Am J Hypertens. 2009)

Use of Antipsychotics in Alzheimer’s Patients May Lead to Detrimental Metabolic Changes “Previous results from CATIE-AD found only modest effectiveness in treating behavioral symptoms of Alzheimer's disease while adverse effects limited improvements overall. The results of this latest analysis suggest further caution is needed when using atypical antipsychotics to treat Alzheimer's patients. The researchers conclude that Alzheimer's patients receiving atypical antipsychotics should be monitored very closely.”

Statins for the prevention of dementia. (Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009) “There was no evidence that statins were detrimental to cognition. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: There is good evidence from RCTs that statins given in late life to individuals at risk of vascular disease have no effect in preventing AD or dementia. Biologically it seems feasible that statins could prevent dementia due to their role in cholesterol reduction and initial evidence from observational studies was very promising. Indication bias may have been a factor in these studies however and the evidence from subsequent RCTs has been negative.”

Exercise

Effectiveness of balance training exercise in people with mild to moderate severity Alzheimer's disease: protocol for a randomised trial. (BMC Geriatr. 2009)

Exercise Did Not Improve Cognition in Elderly Dementia Patients: Study “A short-term walking program did not improve cognition in older nursing home patients with moderate dementia, reports an article in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry for July. "Physical activity can increase brain volume and benefit cognition in healthy sedentary older people," the authors note. Furthermore, they say, treadmill running led to reduced beta-amyloid accumulation in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. … "Possible explanations for the lack of a beneficial effect...could be the level of physical activation of the intervention or the high frequency of comorbid cardiovascular disease in the present population of older people with dementia," the authors conclude.”

Supervised exercise to reduce agitation in severely cognitively impaired persons. (J Am Med Dir Assoc. 2009) “CONCLUSION: There was an improvement in agitation scores and the 6-meter walk times in the subjects after their engagement in the 3-week exercise program. Further study is needed in order to expand on these results.”

General Information

Potentially Inappropriate Medication Use in Older Adults With Mild Cognitive Impairment. (J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2009)

Dementia Is a Terminal Illness, But Palliative Care Often Poor “The presence of distressing symptoms and burdensome interventions of limited benefit are "2 things that are not really indicative of high-quality palliative care," she said. However, when family members understood the poor prognosis and clinical course of end-stage dementia, patients were far less likely to undergo aggressive intervention, Dr. Mitchell added. "For example, if the family felt they both understood the clinical complications that were expected and the poor prognosis, 27% of those patients got a burdensome intervention in the last 90 days of life, compared to 73% of those patients whose family members didn't understand either of those things." "It really comes down to what the goals of care are," she added. When it becomes clear to families that these patients have a poor prognosis, and they understand the types of complications the patients will face near the end, most want the goal of care to be comfort for the patient, she explained. Families can then take the different problems that arise and consider the treatment options, whether they be palliative or aggressive, and decide which one is going to promote that goal of comfort for the patient, Dr. Mitchell said. "I think as soon as the preferences turn toward comfort with an understanding of where these folks are in the end stage of the disease, that's when you can comfortably stop doing some of those things that don't promote comfort," Dr. Mitchell concluded.”

Treatment of vascular risk factors is associated with slower decline in Alzheimer disease (NEUROLOGY 2009)

The Indiana Alzheimer Disease Center's Symposium on Mild Cognitive Impairment. Cognitive training in older adults: lessons from the ACTIVE Study. (Curr Alzheimer Res. 2009)

Close Caregiver Relationship May Slow Alzheimer's Decline “"We've shown that the benefits of having a close caregiver, especially a spouse, may be substantial. The difference in cognitive and functional decline over time between close and not-as-close pairs can mean the difference between staying at home or going to a nursing facility," says Lyketsos.”

Guidelines

Immunotherapy

Internet Sites

Treatment Information

DrugBank (drug structure)

FDA - MedWatch (Drug Alerts)

Drug-Food-Supplement Information

Drug Information Online

Drug Interaction Checker

DrugDigest (drug interactions)

FDA - Drug Interactions: What You Should Know

NIH - Botanical Dietary Supplements: Background Information

NIH - Drug, Supplements, and Herbal Information

NIH - Herbal Supplements: Consider Safety, Too

NIH - Medicines

NIH - Vitamin and Mineral Supplement Fact Sheets

Nutrition

Ketogenic Agent May Improve Cognition With Alzheimer's Disease

Other

Other Treatments

Experimental

Caffeine May Fight Alzheimer's Memory Loss

Effects of voluntary and forced exercise on plaque deposition, hippocampal volume, and behavior in the Tg2576 mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. (Neurobiol Dis. 2009)

Amelioration of cognitive deficits and neurodegeneration by curcumin in rat model of sporadic dementia of Alzheimer's type (SDAT). (Eur Neuropsychopharmacol. 2009)

The effect of acetyl-L-carnitine and R-alpha-lipoic acid treatment in ApoE4 mouse as a model of human Alzheimer's disease. (J Neurol Sci. 2009)

Chronic antioxidant therapy reduces oxidative stress in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. (Free Radic Res. 2009)

Radiotherapy

Supplements-Vitamins-CAM

Vitamin E Use Is Associated with Improved Survival in an Alzheimer's Disease Cohort. (Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord. 2009)

Phenolic Compounds Prevent Alzheimer's Pathology through Different Effects on the Amyloid-{beta} A ggregation Pathway. (Am J Pathol. 2009)

Ginkgo Biloba Extract EGb 761(R) in the Treatment of Dementia: Evidence of Efficacy and Tolerability. (Fortschr Neurol Psychiatr. 2009)

DHA Supplements Show Some Benefit in Cognitive Decline but Not Alzheimer's Disease

Vitamin e paradox in Alzheimer's disease: it does not prevent loss of cognition and may even be detrimental. (J Alzheimers Dis. 2009)

Ginkgo biloba for cognitive impairment and dementia. (Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2009)

Surgery

Transplantation

Go to the top