Alzheimer Disease

Highlights of 3 recent studies that focus on psychiatric disorders in older adults.

The goal of clinically relevant detection of neuropathological hallmarks may be in sight.

The co-occurrence of depression and cognitive impairment doubles every 5 years after the age of 70. Here we present a list of elements in a comprehensive and extended evaluation of depression in the elderly.

“Doctor, will you prescribe medical marijuana for my mother? I think it might help her agitation better than the medication you gave her last visit.”

Older adults seem willing to take a hypothetical predictive test-and plan accordingly.

Three new studies offer insights into psychiatric disorders in the elderly.

For up to 60% of patients with bipolar disorder, simply treating their mood symptoms is not enough to help them return to a full life.

Can't keep up with the literature? Here's some help.

When agitation and psychosis symptoms are severe, is an antipsychotic medication an option? Not always.

The latest research on the global risk of Alzheimer disease and other dementias.

Editors' choices of noteworthy psychiatry stories from around the Web: genetics of schizophrenia, Alzheimer disease, the perils of mixing prescription and over-the-counter medications, new guidelines for treating pain with opioids, and other topics.

Sleep disorders represent a significant problem in patients with Alzheimer disease. Here: assessment strategies and a review of drug and non-drug interventions.

A paradigm-shifting finding holds the potential to alter how we perceive brain-immune interactions for disorders like schizophrenia and Alzheimer disease. It would enable a more mechanistic approach to the study of the neuroimmunology of these and other disorders.

Although delusional jealousy was described as an initial symptom in Alois Alzheimer’s first case report, little is known about its clinical features and prognosis in dementia.

This film is a must-see for psychiatrists, not because it adds new information about the course of Alzheimer disease or its impact on families, but because it forces us to rethink issues that can affect our clinical practice.

The potential of TMS as a treatment for cognitive disorders, fatigue, pain, and other manifestations of brain disease is discussed, as is the encouraging prospect for neuropsychiatric management of many patients.

This case stresses the importance of identifying cultural issues that arise in mental health clinical encounters.

The SSRIs, although principally targeting serotonin transporter, are complex drugs that might work on other neurotransmitter and receptor systems. It is likely worthwhile to look at the effects of other monoamine and neuropeptide systems on the enzymatic machinery cleaving the amyloid precursor protein.

Vascular surgeons, internists, and neurologists all exist-but why aren’t there any vascular psychiatrists? There certainly is a need.

In the trenches of Alzheimer research, the battle continues . . . but where do we stand? Is the war on AD dementia nearing conclusion, or are we simply in the initial throes of the fight? Three experts weigh in.

Alzheimer disease psychosis appears to be a distinct clinical entity. This article focuses on management strategies.

Demographic shifts and rising life expectancies will lead to an epidemic of chronic neuropsychiatric disease, and societal and public health costs will be enormous. Deep brain stimulation--a procedure that interfaces directly with the neural elements that drive pathological behavior--could be useful.

Big things are happening in Alzheimer disease research. Recent developments are shaping the future for assessment and diagnosis and allowing for early detection and treatment of the disease.

While the growing evidence base for the positive effects of lithium on brain health is compelling, the evidence remains preliminary.

We have the target protein for Alzheimer, the antibody to knock out the protein, and the imaging test locating the protein in the brain, but there still remains one problem . . . who should receive the antibody?

Results of a 10-week prospective study, recently reported at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, offered no conclusive evidence about the mortality risk of elderly patients with Alzheimer disease who were treated with antipsychotics.

Despite the prevalent perception that cognitive decline in the aged population is inevitable, researchers with Northwestern University's SuperAging Project are finding that "excellent memory capacity in late life is a biological possibility."

Because of new imaging techniques and advances in our understanding of neurophysiology, neurological and psychiatric disorders are increasingly being recognized as disorders of circuit functions in the brain. Using techniques such as DBS, neurosurgeons are able to pinpoint malfunctioning circuits and to recalibrate them.

Less common but still important syndromes connected with Alzheimer disease include traumatic brain injury, infectious and inflammatory disorders, alcohol-induced dementia.

The evolution of deep brain stimulation for various neuropsychiatric disorders results from advances in structural and functional brain imaging, increased understanding of neurocircuitry of the brain, and improvements in neurosurgical techniques and equipment.