Alzheimer’s Disease/Dementia News

For older adults with dementia, three nonpharmacological interventions — chair yoga, music intervention and chair-based exercise — were safe and feasible, according to findings published in the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias. In addition, chair yoga and chair-based exercises improved quality of life in this population.

Patients with Alzheimer’s disease who initiated antipsychotics were hospitalized for 53% more days than nonusers over a 2-year period, according to results from a Finnish study published in the Journal of the American Medical Directors Association.

Older patients prescribed donepezil had a higher risk for hospital admission for rhabdomyolysis than patients prescribed rivastigmine or galantamine, according to a population-based cohort study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The amount of alcohol older adults consume affects their risk for dementia differently depending on whether they have mild cognitive impairment, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

Following the discontinuation of a phase 3 trial of aducanumab, an anti-amyloid compound that showed potential as a disease-modifying therapy, or DMT, no DMTs exist to combat the Alzheimer disease epidemic, researchers wrote in a viewpoint published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Participation in an aerobic exercise training or a stretching and toning program was linked to improved performance on memory and executive function tests in previously sedentary patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment, or aMCI, study findings showed.

Researchers found that a modified Mediterranean-ketogenic diet can impact the gut microbiome in a way that decreases risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

Using diffusion tensor imaging segmentation, an advanced MRI brain scan analysis, researchers were able to assess microstructural brain damage to predict dementia in patients with cerebral small vessel disease and lacunar strokes.

Within the next 30 years, the number of people with dementia is set to triple, according to WHO.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently concluded that the evidence is insufficient to recommend screening for cognitive impairment in asymptomatic older adults.