Alzheimer’s Disease/Dementia News

Using routinely collected patient characteristics, researchers said they were able to predict the life expectancy of patients with dementia with “good accuracy.”

Screening for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias in primary care settings did not result in any harm as measured by patient-reported anxiety and depressive symptoms, according to findings of a randomized controlled trial published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. However, the researchers did not find any benefit from screening in increasing advance care planning or reducing ED hospitalizations and visits.

Hydromethylthionine, a potent tau aggregation inhibitor, showed pharmacological activity on brain structure and function as both monotherapy and as an add-on to symptomatic treatment in certain patients with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a post hoc pharmacokinetic analysis of phase 3 study results.

No sleep for one night increased levels of the Alzheimer’s disease biomarker tau among young, healthy men, according to results of a two-condition crossover study published in Neurology.

Patients with Alzheimer’s disease who use antipsychotic medications may be at an increased risk for head injuries and traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs, according to findings of a nationwide register-based cohort study conducted in Finland and published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The skin condition bullous pemphigoid may be more likely to develop in adults with type 2 diabetes who use DPP-IV inhibitors vs. those who do not use the medication, especially if they also use spironolactone or have dementia, according to findings published in the Journal of Diabetes and its Complications.

Researchers found no clinically meaningful association between short-term proton pump inhibitor therapy and increased risk for dementia, according to the results of a meta-analysis.

Tau protein is a superior predictor than amyloid protein of the effect of Alzheimer’s disease on a patient’s brain, according to results of a prospective observational study published in Science Translational Medicine.

Women who were obese during midlife had a 21% greater risk for dementia compared with women who were not, according to a study published in BMJ.

Currently, 1.1 million LGBT individuals in the United States are aged 65 years or older, and recent estimates have predicted that this population will grow to 7 million by 2030. As more LGBT adults age, this patient population will be faced with increased likelihood for developing Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias.