Each study has a usefulness score out of 100 (rubric version 4.0). Tap a score to see what makes it up.
Highest usefulness score first. Studies without a score come last.
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The temporal variant of frontotemporal dementia follows a characteristic cognitive and behavioral progression that suggests early spread from one anterior temporal lobe to the other.
Why it matters
This study of 26 patients with temporal variant frontotemporal dementia found that first symptoms involved semantics or behavior depending on whether atrophy was left- or right-sided, with additional symptoms emerging over time. It describes the natural history of this condition and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Oxidative damage occurs in the brain of subjects with mild cognitive impairment, suggesting that oxidative damage may be one of the earliest events in the onset and progression of Alzheimer disease.
Why it matters
In brain tissue examined soon after death, people with mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimer's (reported as one combined group) had higher levels of three oxidative-damage markers in a temporal-lobe region than cognitively normal people: about 25% more protein carbonyls, 60% more malondialdehyde and 210% more TBARS. Higher TBARS went with more neuritic plaques, and higher protein carbonyls went with worse delayed verbal memory. The authors suggest oxidative damage "may be one of the earliest events" in Alzheimer's, but this is a single after-death measurement that shows an association, not a cause, and it tested no treatment.
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A reasonably accurate, validated model has been produced, with clinical application through a scored point system, to assist clinicians, residents, and family members in defining good goals of care around end-of-life care.
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52/100
Although reduced hippocampal volumes are most pronounced in late-onset depression, older people with early-onset disorders also display volume changes and memory loss.
Why it matters
In 66 people with depression and 20 controls, reduced hippocampal volumes occurred in older people with depression and were linked to worse verbal and visual memory. The authors suggest hippocampal volume changes may explain how depression becomes a risk factor for dementia, but no treatment, cure or prevention is tested.
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52/100
One-third of the 149 people recruited 15 to 18 years ago in the Sydney Multicenter Study of Parkinson's disease have survived.
Why it matters
In a group of 149 people with Parkinson's disease followed for 15 to 18 years, only about one-third survived; among those survivors, 84% had cognitive decline, 48% met criteria for dementia, 81% had fallen and 40% lived in aged care facilities. The authors conclude that the most disabling long-term problems are symptoms "not improved by L-dopa", and that the drug-related movement problems most survivors had were mostly not disabling. They argue that new treatments meant to slow Parkinson's should be judged by whether they help these problems; the study itself does not test any such treatment.
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On average, the risk of dementia seems to increase with the number of episodes in depressive and bipolar affective disorders.
Why it matters
In a Danish register study of 18,726 people with depressive disorder and 4,248 with bipolar disorder, the rate of a dementia diagnosis on readmission rose with each prior episode leading to admission. This is an observational link between mood disorder episodes and later dementia, not evidence that treating or preventing those episodes prevents Alzheimer's disease.
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The DI appears to be a reliable, valid, and responsive measure of the severity of delirium, in patients with delirium, with or without dementia.
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Antioxidants have been hypothesized to protect against Alzheimer's disease, but studies conducted in late life have been inconsistent.
Why it matters
In this prospective study, midlife intake of beta-carotene, flavonoids and vitamins E and C was not associated with the risk of dementia or its subtypes. The authors conclude that midlife dietary antioxidant intake does not modify the risk of late-life dementia.
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These results do not support the hypothesis that hippocampal volumes diminish during the 1-year follow-up period.
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Log-rank testing, adjusted for matching, showed a highly significant difference in stroke-free survival between the two groups (p<0.0001).
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The cognitive deficits in VaD and VCI are characterized by disturbance of frontal functions, with less verbal memory impairment.
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The Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Cargiver Health (REACH) project was designed to test promising interventions for enhancing family caregiving for persons with dementia.
Why it matters
This article describes the design of the REACH project, which tested nine interventions and two control conditions in 1,222 caregiver/care recipient dyads at six sites. It characterizes the sample rather than reporting intervention outcomes.
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Among patients with and without dementia, symptoms of delirium persist up to 12 months after diagnosis.
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Serial quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows the detection of subtle volumetric changes in brain volume.
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We studied the association between mid-life smoking and late-life dementia in the Honolulu Heart Program (1965-1971) and follow-up assessment for dementia (1991-1996) of 3734 Japanese-American men (80% of survivors).
Why it matters
In Japanese-American men, mid-life smoking at medium and heavy levels was associated with higher risk of Alzheimer's disease and more neuritic plaques, while very heavy smoking was not associated with Alzheimer's disease. This is an observational risk-factor finding and does not test treatment or prevention.
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SSD in elderly medical inpatients appears to be a clinically important syndrome that falls on a continuum between no symptoms and DSM-defined delirium.
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Individuals with DS have a substantially increased risk of mortality due to specific causes and may have an elevated risk of other incident cancers in addition to leukemia.
Why it matters
In this registry study of 4872 people with Down syndrome, mortality attributed to dementia and Alzheimer disease was greatly elevated compared with the general population. The study describes disease burden only and provides no information on treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Lung cancer is associated with smoking and age, both of which are associated with comorbidity.
Why it matters
This study looked at how other medical conditions affect survival in people who already have lung cancer, not at Alzheimer's disease. It provides no information about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Increased SBP and low milk intake in midlife were associated with VaD detected 25 to 30 years later.
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Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a recently described syndrome that is currently thought of as a transition phase between healthy cognitive ageing and dementia.
Why it matters
This 2003 review argues that "mild cognitive impairment" is a loose label with many definitions, so counts of how common it is, how often it worsens, and whether treatment helps are "somewhat difficult" to pin down. It also suggests that people with MCI may differ more in the underlying cause than earlier reports said, and that disease of the brain's blood vessels "seems to be underestimated" as one possible cause. It is a review with no new data and gives no figures, so read it as a caution about the MCI label rather than as evidence about any one person's outlook.
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In addition to age and stroke severity, heart diseases and dementia before the stroke seem to have an impact on mortality and recurrence after 1 year.
Why it matters
Among people after a first-ever stroke, dementia, age, stroke severity and atrial fibrillation were associated with death within a year, and dementia predicted stroke recurrence. This describes outcomes after stroke and does not test any treatment for Alzheimer's disease.
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52/100
Dementia affects about 5% of the elderly population over age 65 years and has an unexplained predominance in women and a low rate in some cultures.
Why it matters
This overview describes the different forms of dementia and notes that research has led to potential treatment approaches targeting neurotransmitter function, amyloid production and deposition, and secondary risk factors. It is a general review, not a study showing that any specific approach treats, cures, or prevents Alzheimer's disease.
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Change in eating behaviour was significantly more common in both of the frontotemporal dementia groups than in Alzheimer's disease.
Why it matters
This caregiver questionnaire study found that changes in eating behaviour were significantly more common in frontotemporal dementia than in Alzheimer's disease. It also described a clear sequence of eating-related changes in semantic dementia, starting with altered food preference.
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Irrespective of antibiotic treatment, pneumonia causes substantial suffering in demented patients.
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There is increasing evidence that hypertension may contribute to the development of dementia.
Why it matters
In this cohort, antihypertensive medication use was linked to a reduced incidence of dementia overall and especially vascular dementia, but the result for Alzheimer's disease was not significant. The authors say larger studies with longer follow-up are needed to confirm any relation in Alzheimer's disease.
From across this topic
10 of the 7,967 studies in this topic, picked by a fixed rule (a hash of each study's address), not by score or date; each page of this list shows a different 10. The same 10 appear here every time.
- Spatial navigation impairment is proportional to right hippocampal volume
- Specific midlife depressive symptoms and long-term dementia risk: a 23-year UK prospective cohort study
- Neurology and the kidney
- Underdiagnosis of Dementia: an Observational Study of Patterns in Diagnosis and Awareness in US Older Adults
- Prevalence of depression among older Americans: the Aging, Demographics and Memory Study
- Making the Case for the Accelerated Withdrawal of Aducanumab
- Associations between falls and other serious adverse events and antihypertensive medication in individuals with dementia: An observational cohort study
- Frailty and cognitive impairment--a review of the evidence and causal mechanisms
- Depression, Dementia, or Pseudodementia?
- Cognitive assessment tools for mild cognitive impairment screening