Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

Latest Alzheimer's & Dementia News and Research

Dementia film gets Edinburgh festival screening

A short film about one woman's experience of dementia is being screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival next week (21 and 23 August 2006).

15 Aug 2006

Prospective Huntington At Risk Observational Study

Doctors have completed the first step of a unique medical research study, evaluating 1,001 individuals at risk of developing Huntington's disease who do not know - nor do they want to know - whether they carry the genetic defect that causes the condition.

8 Aug 2006

Relationships between spirituality and science in the human brain

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine are examining the effectiveness of meditation on early cognitive impairment.

7 Aug 2006

Federally approved human embryonic stems inferior to those donated for research

Neural stem cells grown from one of the federally approved human embryonic stem cell lines proved to be inferior to neural stem cells derived from fetal tissue donated for research, a UCLA study has found.

4 Aug 2006

Literacy at less than a ninth-grade level almost doubles the five-year risk of mortality among elderly people

The literacy and mortality study analyzed data on 2,512 participants in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study that was conducted by the National Institute on Aging from 1999 to 2004.

4 Aug 2006

New method to predict dementia risk

A team of researchers have developed a new method to predict dementia risk that could help to identify individuals who might benefit from intensive lifestyle consultations and drug interventions.

3 Aug 2006

Check list for dementia and its all about lifestyle

Researchers from Sweden and Finland have created a dementia-risk test for middle-aged adults, and say the test can be used to help spot risk factors that people can change before dementia starts.

3 Aug 2006

Different genes may be responsible for causing autism in boys than in girls

Like detectives trying to solve a murder case, researchers searching for the biological cause of autism have come up with some surprising suspects.

2 Aug 2006

New insights into brain organisation

Scientists have provided new insights into how and why the brain is organised - knowledge which could eventually inform diagnosis of and treatments for conditions like Alzheimer's disease and autism.

2 Aug 2006

High blood pressure linked with a decline in walking ability in later life

Decline in lower limb function is common in older people, and worsening gait is associated with increased risk of dementia and death. However, factors contributing to gait difficulties in older persons are not well understood.

2 Aug 2006

Spatial organisation of the nervous system in primates and worms

Scientists have provided new insights into how the brain is organised - knowledge which could eventually inform diagnosis of and treatments for conditions like Alzheimer's disease and autism.

1 Aug 2006

Cheaper IVF deal on offer when women donate eggs for stem cell research

British women undergoing IVF procedures will soon be able to subsidise their treatment by donating some of their eggs to research.

30 Jul 2006

Promising therapy for Lou Gehrig's disease delivers antisense drug directly to nervous system

Researchers have designed and tested a molecular therapy in animals that they hope will be a major development in the fight to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease.

27 Jul 2006

Multi-tasking adversely affects brain's learning

Multi-tasking affects the brain's learning systems, and as a result, we do not learn as well when we are distracted, UCLA psychologists report this week in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

26 Jul 2006

Scientists characterize structure of calbindin-D28K

Scientists at North Carolina State University have effectively lifted the veil from an important protein that is linked to the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Huntington's.

26 Jul 2006

High rates of off-label prescriptions for antidepressant, anticonvulsant and antipsychotic drugs

A University of Georgia study has found that three-quarters of people prescribed antidepressant drugs receive the medications for a reason not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

26 Jul 2006

New nerve-stimulation treatment for epilepsy helps!

A unique nerve-stimulation treatment for epilepsy developed at UCLA offers a potential new alternative for tens of thousands of individuals unable to control their seizures with medication and ineligible for surgery.

26 Jul 2006

HIV mutation clue to why only some people develop AIDS dementia

The study of 18 HIV-positive subjects shows that HIV in the brain and central nervous system is genetically different from HIV that lives in the blood and peripheral tissues.

26 Jul 2006

Eszopiclone significantly improves sleep in elderly people with chronic insomnia

The drug eszopiclone, marketed as Lunesta, significantly improved sleep in elderly people with chronic insomnia, according to a report by W. Vaughn McCall, M.D., M.S., and six colleagues.

25 Jul 2006

New idea for detecting zinc in the body with implications for illnesses

Scientists at Cardiff University have developed a bright idea for detecting zinc in the body with implications for illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.

25 Jul 2006