View clinical trials related to Alzheimer Disease.
Filter by:In this research study the investigators want to find out if a non-invasive electrical brain stimulation method called RAVANS (also called tVNS) can have a beneficial effect on cognition in older individuals. The investigators also want to understand whether certain individual factors contribute to the effect of RAVANS on cognition. RAVANS is only used in research studies.
A medicine that is FDA-approved for bone marrow stimulation (called sargramostim) will be tested for its safety and efficacy in individuals with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease over a six month treatment period.
The proposed Phase 2 project will involve the further development and evaluation of LEAD IT!, which is a tablet-based app designed to enable persons with dementia to lead activities for their peers (i.e., other persons with dementia). The study will examine the clinical outcomes of long-term use of the app by both Resident Leaders (RLs) and Resident Players (RPs). The Specific Aims of the proposed Phase 2 project are to: 1. Develop improved Beta 1 and Beta 2 Versions of LEAD IT! with sufficient content to facilitate six activities twice per week for 4.5 months. 2. Examine the extent to which RLs are able to serve as leaders while using LEAD IT! 3. Examine the effects of resident-led LEAD IT! programming on RPs. 4. Examine PWD and staff satisfaction with LEAD IT!
Oculomotor behavior and cognitive processing of visual information are intimately connected. AD patients show ocular movement problems. Oculomotor deficits are broad consisting mainly of different saccade metrics, altered pupil responses. and smaller and irregular eye vergence movements. Here we test an interactive eye-tracking game to improve eye motion control and thereby training cognitive behavior
The purpose of this research is to compare the effectiveness of a continuous monitoring system to assess Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) over time compared to the traditional assessments used by medical professionals as Alzheimer's Disease and Alzheimer's Disease Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) progresses.
Presently, few studies have evaluated the clinical impact of rTMS in Alzheimer's disease. Though some studies have demonstrated an improvement, there have been conflicting results, as others do not seem to demonstrate beneficial effects. Furthermore, it is the combined application of rTMS with cognitive training that could represent a real turning point in interventions aiming to slow down cognitive decline resulting from AD. Research has shown that the best way to promote the strengthening of a network is to stimulate the area while simultaneously activating the network (i.e. through cognitive training) which supports the specific function of interest. Recently, there have been new protocols from animal model research showing that "bursts" of repetitive stimulation at a high theta frequency induce synaptic plasticity in a much shorter time period than required by standard rTMS protocols. This type of rTMS stimulation, theta-burst stimulation (TBS), is therefore even more compelling as a therapeutic intervention given that it includes the benefits previously ascribed to other rTMS protocols, but requires less administration time. Furthermore, studies conducted using both types of stimulation suggest that TBS protocols are capable of producing long term effects on cortical excitability that exceed the efficacy of those using standard rTMS protocols. This project offers patients the possibility of accessing an innovative non-invasive, and non-pharmacological treatment. The goal is to evaluate the clinical efficacy TBS in patients diagnosed with mild cognitive decline (MCI) and AD, verifying if TBS in conjunction with cognitive training produces results better than those obtainable with only one of the two methodologies alone. Patients will be evaluated throughout the full scope of the treatment period, through clinical assessments and neuropsychological evaluations. We will examine neuroplastic changes by investigating the neural correlates underlying improvements using the multimodal imaging technique: TMS-EEG co-registration. A secondary objective will be to define the most effective stimulation protocol, verifying if TBS applied continuously (cTBS) or intermittently (iTBS) produces better behavioral outcomes. The results will be crucial to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms through which brain stimulation contributes to the promotion of neuroplasticity, and the efficacy of TBS combined with cognitive training.
Immediate family members shoulder the majority of care responsibilities for persons living with dementia. However, due to various societal changes, elder care responsibilities have expanded to extended family members, including grandchildren, siblings, nieces/nephews, siblings, and step-kin. The main objective of this study is to understand the caregiving journeys of various extended family members involved in dementia care. We aim to learn about caregivers' care management strategies; their use of home and community-based services and informal support; and barriers to service usage. We will use the results from the study to help enhance service delivery, alleviate care-related stress, and improve the quality of life of dementia patients and their caregivers. We will use a mixed-methods design to explore the challenges faced by caregivers as well as their service usage for the person living with dementia. Our methodology involves an initial telephone interview (approx. 70 minutes) that includes open-ended questions, standard items, and structured measures, followed by an 8-day semi-structured daily diary interview about daily care responsibilities and experiences with services (15-20 minutes each evening). This study will be conducted with 240 extended family members serving as one of the main caregivers for a person living with dementia in a community setting.
This is a longitudinal study with regular quantitative assessments of all participants every six months for 3 years. The quantitative portion of the study will recruit couples, consisting of individuals over the age of 65 who are in a committed relationship. Both members of the couple must be willing to participate at baseline. The assessment is in two parts. In the first part, each member of the couple will be asked the following: demographic information, mental health history, self-reported physical and emotional health, measures of emotional and mental health, personality, relationship and attachment style, social support and self-efficacy. Then each member of the study couple will be asked a series of questions to determine whether they consider themselves a caregiver. If they do, individuals will be asked to respond to additional caregiver questionnaires. Follow-ups will occur every six months for the study couples for a total of three years from the baseline visit. Each visit, the entire assessment except for demographic questions, will be re-administered to each individual in the couple. At the end of each questionnaire battery, individuals will be screened for cognitive impairment and those who are in the middle to advanced stages of dementia will no longer participate. Recruitment will end when 600 individuals (300 couples,150 couples at each site) are enrolled in the longitudinal portion of the study. All study visits will be conducted virtually via Zoom or WebEx video conferencing. Analyses will be conducted to determine the association between changes in dyadic relationship and changes in mental health and cognitive outcomes, to elucidate how relationship characteristics impact health and well-being as perceived by each member of the dyad.
The purpose of this research is to see how sleep and exercise affects dementia risk over time.
The primary objective of the study is to evaluate whether a set of algorithms analysing acoustic and linguistic patterns of speech can detect amyloid-specific cognitive impairment in early stage Alzheimer's disease, based on archival spoken or written language samples, as measured by the AUC of the receiver operating characteristic curve of the binary classifier distinguishing between amyloid positive and amyloid negative arms. Secondary objectives include (1) evaluating how many years before diagnosis of MCI such algorithms work, as measured on binary classifier performance of the classifiers trained to classify MCI vs cognitively normal (CN) arms using archival material from the following time bins before MCI diagnosis: 0-5 years, 5-10 years, 10-15 years, 15-20 years, 20-25 years; (2) evaluating at what age such algorithms can detect later amyloid positivity, as measured on binary classifier performance of the classifiers trained to classify amyloid positive vs amyloid negative arms using archival material from the following age bins: younger than 50, 50-55, 55-60, 65-70, 70-75 years old.