Geriatrics News

Recent findings suggest that the Disease State Index, a validated supervised machine learning method, may be useful for prediction of late-life dementia.

In a recent editorial, researchers called for more focus and funding to explore the link between infection and Alzheimer’s disease — a relationship they believe is being neglected, and one that they say is often dismissed as “controversial” in the mainstream research community.

Research has shown a complicated and sometimes uncertain relationship between infectious diseases and mental health. The relationship is sometimes bidirectional, as in the case of HIV, which can be both the cause of neurocognitive disorders in infected patients and a consequence of risky behaviors associated with an already established mental illness. Infections also have been implicated as the root cause of mental health disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Adding exercise to antidepressant medication may increase likelihood of depression remission for certain elderly patients, such as those aged older than 75 years, according to research findings published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Researchers also reported liaison programs between primary care physicians (PCPs) and psychiatrists or other multi-disciplinary professionals may encourage PCPs to implement exercise interventions for depression in primary care.

Global- or domain-specific decline in cognition was associated with and can be predicted by spatial, temporal and spatiotemporal elements of gait, according to study results published in Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Patients receiving palliative care who were treated with risperidone and haloperidol displayed significantly greater distressing symptoms of delirium relative to those who were treated with placebo, according to clinical trial results published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Individuals with Alzheimer’s disease who presented with hallucinations, particularly auditory, were more likely to relapse after discontinuing antipsychotic treatment.

A systematic review and meta-analysis indicated depression among 32% of individuals with mild cognitive impairment.

Approximately 5.4 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease, which affects one in nine people aged 65 years and older, according to data from the Alzheimer’s Association.

The FDA is calling for further research on earlier stages of Alzheimer’s disease to attack the disorder head on.