View clinical trials related to Frontotemporal Dementia.
Filter by:The goal of this observational study is to determine whether the early adoption of blood-based biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease is associated with an impact on etiological diagnosis, patient's management, emotional impact, patient's preferences and cost-effectiveness in patients presenting with cognitive complaints in a Cognitive Disorders Unit from a public hospital. The main questions it aims to answer are: 1. Does the early adoption of blood-based biomarkers in clinical practice enable an earlier etiologic diagnosis with high confidence compared to the late adoption of blood-based biomarkers in the patients with cognitive complaints that are admitted in a Cognitive Disorders Unit? 2. Is the early adoption of blood-based biomarkers in clinical practice associated with changes in clinical management compared to their late adoption? 3. Is the early adoption of blood-based biomarkers in clinical practice associated with a lower emotional impact in the patients and their study partners/caregivers compared to their late adoption? 4. Are blood-based biomarkers better tolerated than other tests and preferred by patients for the diagnostic work-up? 5. Does blood-based biomarkers have an impact in the cost of the diagnostic workup and clinical management of the patients that are admitted in a Cognitive Disorders Unit? Participants will be asked to: - Perform a blood extraction for blood-based biomarkers analysis at the beginning of the study. - Complete specific scales in each visit. Researchers will compare the group in which blood biomarkers are delivered at 3 months with the group in which they are delivered at 9 months to assess whether early adoption of blood-based biomarkers is associated with an impact on etiological diagnosis, patient's management, emotional impact, patient's preferences and cost-effectiveness in a specialized memory unit.
The primary objective of this research is to evaluate the effects of non-invasive brain stimulation and computerized cognitive training on executive functioning in individuals with Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or dementia. In this study, investigators will use transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to stimulate the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). Previous studies have demonstrated that tDCS over the DLPFC led to improvements in attention deficit caused by stroke, Parkinson's Disease, and major depression as well as language deficits caused by neurodegenerative conditions such as primary progressive aphasia or mild cognitive impairment. The investigators seek to expand on this literature by investigating how anodal tDCS paired with and without cognitive training will impact executive functioning in PPA with Frontotemporal Dementia or Alzheimer's Disease pathology and Mild Cognitive Impairment/Alzheimer's Disease (e.g. shifting, updating, monitoring, and manipulation).
The purpose of the study is to test whether low level electric stimulation, called transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), on the part of the brain (i.e., pre-supplementary motor area) thought to aid in memory will improve speech and language difficulties in patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and progressive apraxia of speech (PAOS). The primary outcome measures are neuropsychological assessments of speech and language functions, and the secondary measures are neuropsychological assessments of other cognitive abilities and electroencephalography (EEG) measures.
1. To investigate the biomarkers of MND/FTD spectrum disease 2. To explore the possible pathogenesis of MND/FTD
The investigators aim to learn more about symptoms suggestive of a neurodegenerative process.
The protocol is organized into three Phases - In Phase I an online training program will be developed in "Care of Persons with Dementia in their Environments" (COPE) -an evidence-based bio-behavioral dementia program -using state-of-the science simulation and best online learning practices. In addition an automated approach to fidelity monitoring using computational linguistics (automatic classification programs) will be developed. In Phase II, ten long term care community-based (PACE) organizations will be randomized into two groups; 5 PACE organizations will serve as the "control" site in which staff training will be provided via the traditional high intensity face-to-face training in the COPE program. 5 PACE organizations will serve as the comparison and staff will be trained using the online COPE training program. Phase II will evaluate the whether an online training program is the same or better in improving PACE staff competency and fidelity to COPE principles and protocols compared to a high intensity face-to-face traditional form of training. In Phase III the efficacy of the COPE program on PACE participant outcomes by type of COPE training will be evaluated. Each of the PACE organizations will enroll 5 persons with dementia and their caregivers in the study. This will yield 50 family dyads (25 dyads in traditional training sites and 25 dyads in online training sites). Dyads will be followed for 4 months. Non-inferiority analysis will be used to assess whether dyads will yield the same or better outcomes regardless of how PACE staff were trained.
The VOICE Of bvFTD study is a telephone interview research study about life with or at risk for behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD). The study aims to understand how bvFTD impacts individuals' day to day lives, how people think about themselves, and what challenges they face.
This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a therapy called High-Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD-tDCS) for the treatment of the language deficits experienced by people with a type of Primary Progressive Aphasia. This study uses a combination of brain imaging, language assessment, language training sessions, and HD-tDCS therapy as well as placebo therapy sessions.
Early Check provides voluntary screening of newborns for a selected panel of conditions. The study has three main objectives: 1) develop and implement an approach to identify affected infants, 2) address the impact on infants and families who screen positive, and 3) evaluate the Early Check program. The Early Check screening will lead to earlier identification of newborns with rare health conditions in addition to providing important data on the implementation of this model program. Early diagnosis may result in health and development benefits for the newborns. Infants who have newborn screening in North Carolina will be eligible to participate, equating to over 120,000 eligible infants a year. Over 95% of participants are expected to screen negative. Newborns who screen positive and their parents are invited to additional research activities and services. Parents can enroll eligible newborns on the Early Check electronic Research Portal. Screening tests are conducted on residual blood from existing newborn screening dried blood spots. Confirmatory testing is provided free-of-charge for infants who screen positive, and carrier testing is provided to mothers of infants with fragile X. Affected newborns have a physical and developmental evaluation. Their parents have genetic counseling and are invited to participate in surveys and interviews. Ongoing evaluation of the program includes additional parent interviews.
The goals of this study are: (1) to better understand the relationship between the phenotype and genotype of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and related diseases, including primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), progressive muscular atrophy (PMA), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD); and (2) to develop biomarkers that might be useful in aiding therapy development for this group of disorders.