Geriatrics News

Cognitive behavioral therapy offered via a telephone call improved sleep, fatigue and, “to a lesser degree,” pain among older adults with insomnia and osteoarthritis, according to researchers. “Scalable delivery models of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), an effective treatment, are needed for widespread implementation, particularly in rural and underserved populations lacking ready access to insomnia treatment,” Susan M. McCurry, PhD, a research professor at the University of Washington School of Nursing, and colleagues wrote in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Both conventional exercise and tai chi were associated with modest sleep improvements, which were sustained for 24 months, according to results of a randomized clinical trial published in JAMA Network Open.

The common frontotemporal dementia gene variations have different behavioral and neuropsychiatric disturbances and different trajectories through the course of the disease, according to study results published in JAMA Network Open.

Individuals with Parkinson’s disease were at increased risk for suicide, according to results of a nationwide population-based cohort study published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Adults aged 50 years or older reported lower levels of social isolation and loneliness after 6 months of participation in a community-based exercise program, according to study results published in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Delirium represented a common symptom among older adults with COVID-19 presenting to U.S. EDs and was often seen in the absence of other typical signs or symptoms of the virus, according to findings published in JAMA.

Late-life air pollution exposure among women aged 80 years or older appeared associated with increased risk for depressive episodes and episodic memory declines, according to study results published in Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Older adults with higher levels of loneliness were at increased risk for more severe depression symptoms, according to results of a population-based cohort study published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Monitoring of cognitive function may be warranted among middle- and older-aged individuals who sleep for 4 or fewer or 10 or more hours per night, according to results of a pooled cohort study published in JAMA Network Open.

About half of patients with Alzheimer’s disease experience back pain, but only eight North American medical schools offer courses on geriatric pain, data show.