View clinical trials related to Mild Cognitive Impairment.
Filter by:Over 700,000 Canadians are affected by dementia costing the health care system approximately $10 billion/year. Due to COVID-19, the government has urged individuals over the age of 70 to stay home, putting this population at risk of social isolation. Older adults with mild cognitive impairments (MCIs), dementia, and their caregivers are at an even higher risk of becoming stressed, anxious, and agitated while in lockdown. Unsurprisingly, caregiver burden is extremely common, and often precedes institutionalization of the patient, as the demands of the illness begin to exceed that which the caregiver can sustainably provide. Since social distancing measures have shut down activities and support groups for these individuals, there is an urgent need for scalable, cost-effective, non-pharmacological interventions that can be delivered remotely to improve stress and loneliness. Yoga may be a viable therapeutic modality to address the psychological challenges associated with dementia in patients and caregivers, as it has been shown to decrease stress and improve anxiety and depressive symptoms in various populations. For this reason, the investigators are conducting a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to assess the efficacy of an 8-week virtual chair yoga program to improve stress, psychological symptoms, and caregiver burden. This virtual chair yoga study will engage both older adults with dementia/MCI and caregivers (n=40-60 participants) during COVID-19, which is consistent with the need for decreasing costs and increasing accessibility of novel health interventions during and beyond the pandemic. The investigators will evaluate the effect of this program on stress, loneliness, and mental health related outcomes such as fear of COVID-19, depression, anxiety, and caregiver burden compared to a waitlist control group. There will also be a qualitative component in the form of semi-structured interviews. All quantitative outcomes will be assessed before the program starts and post-intervention and qualitative outcomes will be assessed post-intervention. Participants will be randomly assigned to the treatment group (virtual chair yoga 1 hour per week on Zoom) or the waitlist control group. The investigators hypothesize that after the 8-week yoga program, older adults and caregivers will report lower stress, loneliness, depression, anxiety, fear of COVID-19, and caregiver burden. Results will be available late-2021.
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.
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.
Due to increasing age and an increasing prevalence rate of neurocognitive disorders such as Mild Cognitive Impairment and dementia, independent living may become challenging. The use of socially assistive robots is one solution that can enable older adults with cognitive impairment to remain independent. However, at present, there is a lack of knowledge about the impact of assistive robots on older adults with MCI and their caregivers. A 12-month trial will be conducted to measure the impact of the robot. A total of 120 participants living in independent living facilities, nursing homes or patients part of a rehabilitation program will be recruited. The outcome measures will be defined based on experiences from previous pilot trials with the robot. The primary outcomes will be active engagement and loneliness. Participation, physical and cognitive functioning will be defined as the secondary outcomes.
The primary objective of the study is to evaluate whether a set of algorithms analysing acoustic and linguistic patterns of speech, can predict change in PACC5 between baseline and +12 month follow up across all four Arms, as measured by the coefficient of individual agreement (CIA) between the change in PACC5 and the corresponding regression model, trained on baseline speech data to predict it. Secondary objectives include (1) evaluating whether similar algorithms can predict change in PACC5 between baseline and +12 month follow up in the cognitively normal (CN) and MCI populations separately; (2) evaluating whether similar algorithms trained to regress against PACC5 scores at baseline, still regress significantly against PACC5 scores at +12 month follow-up, as measured by the coefficient of individual agreement (CIA) between the PACC5 composite at +12 months and the regression model, trained on baseline speech data to predict PACC5 scores at baseline; (3) evaluating whether similar algorithms can classify converters vs non-converters in the cognitively normal Arms (Arm 3 + 4), and fast vs slow decliners in the MCI Arms (Arm 1 + 2), as measured by the AUC, sensitivity, specificity and Cohen's kappa of the corresponding binary classifiers. Secondary objectives include the objectives above, but using time points of +24 months and +36 months; and finally to evaluate whether the model performance for the objectives and outcomes above improved if the model has access to speech data at 1 week, 1 month, and 3 month timepoints.
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, as measured by the AUC of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve of the binary classifier distinguishing between amyloid positive (Arms 1 and 3) and amyloid negative (Arms 2 and 4) Arms. Secondary objectives include (1) evaluating whether similar algorithms can detect amyloid-specific cognitive impairment in the cognitively normal (CN) and MCI Arms respectively, as measured on binary classifier performance; (2) whether they can detect MCI, as measured on binary classifier performance (AUC, sensitivity, specificity, Cohen's kappa), and the agreement between the PACC5 composite and the corresponding regression model predicting it in all Arms pooled (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, CIA); (3) evaluating variables that can impact performance of such algorithms of covariates from the speaker (age, gender, education level) and environment (measures of acoustic quality).
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the leading causes of disability in older adults. Because pharmacological approaches do not seem to prevent or slow the disease, clinicians need non-pharmacological interventions that might help people with AD remain independent for as long as possible. This study aims to evaluate the effects of a new behavioral treatment, the Structured External Memory Aid Treatment (SEMAT), for adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) designed to promote independent living skills by explicitly teaching the use of strategies and tools to compensate for cognitive weaknesses. Aim 1: Evaluate the efficacy of the SEMAT for improving functional performance in a pilot randomized trial. Aim 2: Evaluate demographic, clinical, and neuropsychological predictors of treatment adherence. Aim 3: Develop and refine the SEMAT manual and other materials for training future interventionists.
When dementia is caused by AD, we refer to it as dementia of the Alzheimer's Type (DAT). The greatest risk factor for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and DAT is advancing age, but DAT is not a normal part of aging. Studies have shown that changes in the brain happen before full symptoms of DAT develop. These changes include a buildup of two proteins within the brain, called amyloid and tau. The two goals of this study are (1) to determine whether patients with mild cognitive impairment or dementia-Alzheimer's type (DAT) are able to demonstrate decisional capacity to engage in PET amyloid and tau disclosure after receiving education; and (2) to assess how patients and care partners react to PET amyloid and tau biomarker disclosure.
Objective 1: Assess feasibility and acceptability of all protocol components of a pilot trial testing a 6-week telehealth Mediterranean ketogenic nutrition adherence (KNA) program using motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral strategies (MI-CBT) compared to a KN information only group for older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) to prepare for a full-scale trial. Specifically, the investigators will examine the feasibility of the recruitment, retention, assessment, and intervention delivery methods. The investigators hypothesize that: 1. The study protocol will result in high patient retention (90%) and patient attendance of intervention sessions (80%), and 2. A centralized MI-CBT telehealth delivery approach will be associated with high intervention acceptability ratings from patients. Objective 2: Assess signal of initial effect of the KNA program on important clinical outcomes and adherence relative to a KN information-only condition. The investigators hypothesize that patients in the KNA condition, relative to the KN-only condition, will show: 1. higher rates of clinically significant improvements on the RBANS total scale scores, improvements in daily functioning (FSQ), and decreases in patient CAIDE risk score( (Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging, and Incidence of Dementia), and 2. improved adherence to KN, as evidenced by higher levels of measurable urine ketones in the KNA condition compared to the KN-only condition.
To test for the first time the potential of a nicotinic agonist on cognitive symptoms in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in Parkinson's disease (PD), referred to as PD-MCI.