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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This study demonstrates permanent cognitive impairment in several domains in both septic and non-septic ICU survivors and unspecific brain dysfunction.
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Sirtuins are a class of NAD(+)-dependent deacetylases having beneficial health effects.
Why it matters
This review describes the actions of the seven mammalian sirtuins and their role in diseases of aging, noting that pharmacological agents boosting sirtuin activity have potential in treating conditions including dementia. It also notes that in cancer, SIRT1 inhibitors could have therapeutic value, and that nutraceuticals such as resveratrol have many actions beyond sirtuin activation.
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Asia is the most populous region in the world and its rapidly growing societies are the sources of global development.
Why it matters
This review describes dementia prevalence and trends in Asia, noting that overall prevalence is expected to rise dramatically as populations age and that the ratio of Alzheimer's disease to vascular dementia has shifted to resemble Western countries. It discusses possible risk factors but does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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44/100
Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) are at high risk of progression to Alzheimer's dementia.
Why it matters
This work uses sparse learning and stability selection on baseline ADNI data to predict which people with mild cognitive impairment will convert to Alzheimer's dementia. It is a prediction method and does not test any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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As the population ages, the economic and societal impacts of neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric disorders are expected to rise sharply.
Why it matters
This review discusses clinical, neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and pathophysiological features of depression in later life, noting that late-life depressive disorders are linked to cognitive decline. It does not test a treatment, cure, or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Corticosteroids are widely used in modern medicine but can result in troubling psychiatric side-effects.
Why it matters
This review of case reports and clinical trials found that psychiatric complications of corticosteroid treatment, including delirium and dementia, are not rare. It does not study Alzheimer's disease treatment or prevention, and the authors call for further studies on these effects.
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Dementia is a clinical syndrome of widespread progressive deterioration of cognitive abilities and normal daily functioning.
Why it matters
This review describes the risk factors, clinical presentation, and differential diagnosis of dementia and outlines multidisciplinary team approaches to dementia care, including management of cognitive impairments, functional deficits, and behavioral and psychological symptoms. It summarizes care and management rather than a cure or prevention.
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ME carer beliefs were an important barrier to early diagnosis.
Why it matters
This qualitative study of UK family carers found that minority ethnic carers tended to delay seeking help for dementia until they could no longer cope, often believing families should care for their own elders and that a diagnosis alone was purposeless. These beliefs were an important barrier to early diagnosis, but the study does not test any treatment or cure.
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Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with a high rate of developing serious medical comorbidities such as cardiovascular disease, stroke, dementia, osteoporosis, diabetes, and the metabolic syndrome.
Why it matters
This review discusses how major depressive disorder is associated with a higher rate of developing conditions including dementia, and proposes that depression may be linked to accelerated aging through several biological processes. It is a review of proposed mechanisms and does not test a treatment or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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The integrity of the vascular system is essential for the efficient functioning of the brain.
Why it matters
This review describes how aging-related vascular disturbances and vascular risk factors are linked to brain degeneration and dementia risk. It notes that age is the strongest risk factor, and that modifiable risks such as cardiovascular disease, hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes and obesity may increase risk, but no treatment is tested.
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Whether there is a difference in impact between EOD and LOD on caregivers is still unclear.
Why it matters
This review of 17 studies found that caregivers of people with early onset dementia experienced high levels of burden, stress, and depression. Whether the impact differs from late onset dementia caregivers remains unclear, and the overall quality of the studies was limited.
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Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) show patterns of change in Alzheimer's disease (AD) that precede dementia.
Why it matters
This study used cerebrospinal fluid and MRI markers to identify subtypes in normal elderly people that predicted later cognitive decline. It is about early detection and biomarker patterns, not about treating, curing, or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Many researchers have sought to construct diagnostic models to differentiate individuals with very mild dementia (VMD) from healthy elderly people, based on structural magnetic-resonance (MR) images.
Why it matters
This study compared seven classification methods for distinguishing very mild dementia from healthy aging using structural MRI and found significant performance differences among them. It is about diagnostic modeling and does not report any treatment, cure, or prevention.
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The occurrence of dementia among the elderly has been associated with several, often not modifiable, risk factors.
Why it matters
In 750 people aged 65 or older, this population-based study examined whether daytime sleepiness was associated with dementia and cognitive decline. It reports an association only and cannot show that treating sleep problems would prevent or cure Alzheimer's disease.
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44/100
Recent prospective studies provided evidence that higher adherence to a Mediterranean-type diet could be associated with slower cognitive decline, reduced risk of progression from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease (AD), reduced risk of AD, and decreased mortality in AD patients.
Why it matters
This review of prospective studies reports that higher adherence to a Mediterranean-type diet was associated with slower cognitive decline and reduced risk of progression from mild cognitive impairment to Alzheimer's disease. The evidence is epidemiological and associative, so it does not establish that diet prevents or treats the disease.
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This study showed a large number of unmet needs in dementia.
Why it matters
This survey of 236 people with dementia and 322 informal carers found many unmet needs, most often in memory, information, company, psychological distress and daytime activities. It is about community care needs and does not test any treatment or cure for dementia.
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A total of 422 eligible PCPs responded. Nearly 90% of PCPs prescribed donepezil in the previous year for their dementia patients.
Why it matters
This survey found geographic variation in primary care physicians' dementia care practices, including medication prescription patterns, community resource referral patterns, and reported barriers to optimal care. It also found that younger physicians were more likely to be interested in using information technology to assist with dementia diagnosis and management.
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44/100
Despite evidence that early identification of dementia is of growing policy and practice significance in the U.K., limited work has been done on evaluating screening measures for use in primary care.
Why it matters
This review examined the use, effectiveness and quality of dementia screening tools in primary care. It is about how to detect dementia, not about treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) has contributed to detecting cognitive impairment, yet few studies have evaluated its accuracy when used by general practitioners (GP) in an actual public-health setting.
Why it matters
This observational study compared MMSE scores given by 59 trained general practitioners with scores from Alzheimer's Evaluation Units in 317 patients with cognitive symptoms. It concerns the accuracy of a screening test in practice and does not address treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Based on these preliminary findings, consensus criteria for prescribing in advanced dementia are needed to decrease polypharmacy and reduce the use of medications that are of minimal benefit or high risk.
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The purpose of the research was to demonstrate that comorbid health conditions disproportionately affect elderly cancer patients.
Why it matters
This study describes how other health conditions, including dementia, become more common with age among cancer patients. It is about patterns of comorbidity and does not test any treatment, cure or prevention for Alzheimer's disease.
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Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers including the 42 amino-acid form of beta-amyloid (Abeta42), total tau protein (T-tau), and the CSF/serum albumin ratio are markers of brain pathology and metabolism.
Why it matters
This cross-sectional study of 84 nondemented elderly women examined whether CSF biomarkers Abeta42 and T-tau relate to depression, noting that studies on this relationship are lacking. It does not test any treatment, prevention, or cure for Alzheimer's disease.
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44/100
Deficits of semantic cognition in semantic dementia and in aphasia consequent on CVA (stroke) are qualitatively different.
Why it matters
In stroke aphasia, patients could name pictures almost perfectly once given enough phonemic cues, suggesting their word knowledge was intact but hard to access without help. In semantic dementia, the same cues gave only limited benefit, and naming stayed severely impaired even when most of the word was provided, indicating the underlying knowledge itself was degraded.
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This study highlights the similarities in the clinical presentation of dementia among the general population and people with DS with a particular emphasis on the earlier appearance of symptoms associated with the frontal lobe dysfunction among adults with DS.
Why it matters
Carers of 24 adults with Down's syndrome and dementia described symptoms similar to those in the general population, such as forgetfulness and confusion, but with frontal lobe-related symptoms appearing earlier. This qualitative study was done to help develop a screening questionnaire and does not address treating, curing or preventing Alzheimer's disease.
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Chronic inflammation is now considered to be central to the pathogenesis not only of such medical disorders as cardiovascular disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes and cancer but also of major depression.
Why it matters
This review summarizes evidence linking chronic low-grade inflammation with brain changes that could lead to Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, and proposes that inflammation may explain why depression sometimes precedes dementia. It is a hypothesis based on existing evidence, not a test of any treatment to prevent or cure dementia.
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.
- Selected Articles from This Issue
- Frontotemporal dementia: clinicopathological correlations
- Cognitive contributions to gait and falls: evidence and implications
- Association of Antipsychotic Use With Mortality Risk in Patients With Parkinson Disease
- Correlates of physical health of informal caregivers: a meta-analysis
- Wine consumption and dementia in the elderly: a prospective community study in the Bordeaux area
- Clinician Perspectives on Automated Facial Analysis for Pain Assessment: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Physicians, Advanced Practice Providers, and Nurses
- Incidence and Prevalence of Dementia With Lewy Bodies
- Association of Cardiovascular Risk Trajectory With Cognitive Decline and Incident Dementia
- Construct and concurrent validity of the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-revised