Alzheimer’s Disease/Dementia News

Currently, 1.1 million LGBT individuals in the United States are aged 65 years or older, and recent estimates have predicted that this population will grow to 7 million by 2030. As more LGBT adults age, this patient population will be faced with increased likelihood for developing Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias.

Research published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society highlighted significant geographic variation in the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in the United States.

Statin therapy in elderly patients was not linked to a greater decline in cognition or memory during a 6-year period, according to a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan designated November as Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, and it has been considered as such in the United States each year since.

The National Institute on Aging has awarded a $17.2 million grant to University of Washington School of Medicine assistant professor of ophthalmology Cecilia Lee, MD, to lead a research team looking to make connections between eye diseases and Alzheimer’s disease.

Conservative estimates indicate that more than 100,000 U.S. Medicare recipients have undiagnosed dementia, according to published reports.

Clinicians may be able to distinguish between memory loss caused by traumatic brain injury, or TBI, vs. Alzheimer’s disease by using tailored MRI scans, according to study results published in Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Personality traits exhibited during high school may be associated with dementia risk more than 5 decades later, according to findings of a retrospective cohort study published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Nonpharmacologic interventions, including massage and touch therapy, may be more effective than pharmacologic methods in reducing aggression and agitation in adults with dementia, according to findings published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Among Hispanic and Latino individuals in the United States, long sleep duration was associated with a decline in neurocognitive performance and predicted 7-year neurocognitive decline, according to a study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia. The researchers noted that longer habitual sleep duration may either be a warning sign of or a risk factor for this decline.