Newest studies

Extended-release physostigmine in Alzheimer disease: a multicenter, double-blind, 12-week study with dose enrichment. Physostigmine Study Group

50/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Treatments Archives of general psychiatry

Key finding: Physostigmine demonstrated a statistically significant benefit compared with placebo on a clinical global rating of change and an objective test of cognitive function. +2 more findings

• Clinical Trials

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Estrogen replacement therapy for treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer disease: a randomized controlled trial. Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study

67/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Treatments JAMA

Key finding: Estrogen replacement therapy for 1 year did not slow disease progression nor did it improve global, cognitive, or functional outcomes in women with mild to moderate AD. +2 more findings

• Treatments
• Clinical Trials

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Plasma 24S-hydroxycholesterol (cerebrosterol) is increased in Alzheimer and vascular demented patients

50/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Genetics Journal of lipid research

Key finding: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the presence of senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and neuronal cell loss associated with membrane cholesterol release. 24S-hydroxycholesterol (24S-OH-Chol) is an enzymatically oxidized product of cholesterol mainly synthesized in the brain. +2 more findings

• Genetics
• Brain Biology

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Analysis of spontaneous, conversational speech in dementia of Alzheimer type: Evaluation of an objective technique for analysing lexical performance

34/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Digital health tools Aphasiology

Key finding: Spontaneous, conversational speech in probable dementia of Alzheimer type (DAT) participants and healthy older controls was analysed using eight linguistic measures. +1 more finding

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Physical illness and depression in older adults : a handbook of theory, research, and practice

13/100 ⚠ Report — not peer-reviewed End-of-life care

Key finding: The Relationship of Major Depressive Disorder to Alzheimer's Disease M.F. +4 more findings

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Lithium up-regulates the cytoprotective protein Bcl-2 in the CNS in vivo: a role for neurotrophic and neuroprotective effects in manic depressive illness

36/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Drug development PubMed

Key finding: Although mood disorders have traditionally been conceptualized as "neurochemical disorders," considerable literature from a variety of sources demonstrates significant reductions in regional central nervous system (CNS) volume and cell numbers (both neurons and glia) in persons with mood disorders. +4 more findings

• Treatments

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Alzheimer disease and neuroinflammation

38/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Inflammation and the immune system Journal of neural transmission. Supplementum

Key finding: It is now generally accepted that the lesions of Alzheimer disease (AD) are associated with a host of inflammatory molecules, including complement proteins, as well as with many activated microglia.

• Brain Biology

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Melatonin and climactery

38/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Risk factors Medical science monitor : international medical journal of experimental and clinical research

Key finding: Serum levels are diminished in patients with insomnia and depressive mood. +4 more findings

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Clinical experience with Cerebrolysin

38/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Clinical trials Journal of neural transmission. Supplementum

Key finding: Cerebrolysin is a peptidergic drug which displays neurotrophic action in various animal models. +3 more findings

• Clinical Trials

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Rivastigmine, a new-generation cholinesterase inhibitor for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease

48/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Treatments Pharmacotherapy

Key finding: Preclinical biochemical studies indicated that rivastigmine has central nervous system selectivity over peripheral inhibition.

• Treatments

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Apolipoprotein E genetic polymorphism, serum lipoproteins, and breast cancer risk

58/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Genetics Molecular carcinogenesis

Key finding: The epsilon4 allele has been associated with elevated levels of cholesterol as well as greater risk of coronary heart disease and Alzheimer's disease. +4 more findings

• Genetics

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The alpha-synucleinopathies: Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and multiple system atrophy

36/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Lewy body dementia Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Key finding: Recent work has shown that the filamentous inclusions of Parkinson's disease are made of the protein alpha-synuclein and that rare, familial forms of Parkinson's disease are caused by missense mutations in the alpha-synuclein gene.

• Other Dementias
• Genetics

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source

Assessment of cerebral blood flow in Alzheimer's disease by spin-labeled magnetic resonance imaging

47/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Getting a diagnosis Annals of neurology

Key finding: Statistical analysis demonstrated significant flow decreases relative to control subjects in temporal, parietal, frontal, and posterior cingulate cortices.

• Brain Scans
• Diagnosis

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The nature of the effect of female gonadal hormone replacement therapy on cognitive function in post-menopausal women: a meta-analysis

64/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Prevention and risk Neuroscience

Key finding: Nevertheless, epidemiological studies suggest that HRT protects against the development of clinically diagnosed Alzheimer's disease.

• Treatments
• Prevention

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Age-associated increased interleukin-6 gene expression, late-life diseases, and frailty

36/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Risk factors Annual review of medicine

Key finding: After menopause or andropause, IL-6 levels are elevated, even in the absence of infection, trauma, or stress. +4 more findings

• Genetics

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A 52-week study of the efficacy of rivastigmine in patients with mild to moderately severe Alzheimer's disease

64/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Treatments European neurology

Key finding: By 52 weeks, patients originally treated with 6-12 mg/day rivastigmine had significantly better cognitive function than patients originally treated with placebo.

• Treatments
• Clinical Trials

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Intraneuronal Abeta42 accumulation in human brain

36/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Risk genes beyond APOE The American journal of pathology

Key finding: Cell biological studies have demonstrated that Abeta is generated intracellularly. +3 more findings

• Genetics
• Brain Biology

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Apolipoprotein E: far more than a lipid transport protein

36/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Genetics Annual review of genomics and human genetics

Key finding: Isoform (allele)-specific effects include the association of apoE2 with the genetic disorder type III hyperlipoproteinemia and with both increased and decreased risk for atherosclerosis and the association of apoE4 with increased risk for both atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease, impaired cognitive function, and reduced neurite outgrowth; isoform-specific differences in cellular signaling events may also exist.

• Genetics

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Membrane breakdown in acute and chronic neurodegeneration: focus on choline-containing phospholipids

36/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Vascular contributions Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996)

Key finding: Proton NMR studies have shown an elevation of choline-containing compounds in the brain of Alzheimer patients while neurochemical studies in post mortem-brain demonstrated increases of the catabolic metabolite, glycerophosphocholine, an indicator of PLA2 activation. +1 more finding

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Hemispheric differences in hippocampal volume predict verbal and spatial memory performance in patients with Alzheimer's disease

43/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Hippocampus size on brain scans Hippocampus

Key finding: Separate stepwise regression analyses (with age, right and left hippocampal, parahippocampal gyrus, and temporal lobe volumes as the independent variables) showed that left hippocampal volume was the best predictor of free recall and delayed free recall of verbal information (P = 0.0042 and P < 0.0001, respectively).

• Brain Scans

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The histological validation of post mortem magnetic resonance imaging-determined hippocampal volume in Alzheimer's disease

36/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Hippocampus size on brain scans Neuroscience

Key finding: We conclude that very accurate volumetric measurements of the whole hippocampal formation can be obtained by using a magnetic resonance imaging protocol.

• Brain Scans

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Hippocampal volume reduction in major depression

43/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed Hippocampus size on brain scans The American journal of psychiatry

Key finding: These findings are consistent with smaller left hippocampal volume in depression. +3 more findings

• Brain Scans

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Preferences for life-sustaining treatments in advance care planning and surrogate decision making

45/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed End-of-life care Journal of palliative medicine

Key finding: Participants chose to forego more invasive or long-term treatments at a higher rate than less invasive, short-term treatments in all health states.

• End-of-Life Care
• Treatments

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Planning end-of-life care for patients with dementia: roles of families and health professionals

36/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed End-of-life care Omega

Key finding: We found that participating family members were not well prepared for their decision-making roles, and that they: 1) experienced substantial burdens and loss in caring for institutionalized elders; 2) had limited understanding of the natural progression of dementing conditions; 3) were uncomfortable in setting goals for their relatives' end-of-life care; 4) had little experience with death, and were ambivalent about the anticipated death of their relative; and (5) reported that they had little substantive communication with health professionals regarding end-of-life care planning. +1 more finding

• End-of-Life Care
• Caregiving

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Palliative care in advanced dementia: a randomized controlled trial and descriptive analysis

71/100 ✓ Peer-reviewed End-of-life care Journal of palliative medicine

Key finding: It was difficult for a palliative care research team to influence the care of advanced dementia patients in the acute hospital setting. +2 more findings

• Clinical Trials
• End-of-Life Care

Full summary, score breakdown and related studies → Original source