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Alzheimer's disease patients with psychosis more likely to be misdiagnosed, study suggests

Alzheimer's disease is a type of dementia characterized by protein deposits in the brain including twisted fibers found inside brain cells. Dementia with Lewy bodies is believed to be caused by the buildup of a different abnormal protein aggregate found in nerve cells in the brain. Effective treatments for these conditions are still under development, but will almost certainly be different, according to the authors. Researchers also found that Alzheimer's disease was misdiagnosed in 24 per cent of all cases, with false positive and false negative rates both being 12 per cent. Previous research suggested that the rate of misdiagnosis in Alzheimer's disease ranged from 12-23 per cent. The findings, published online in  Alzheimer's & Dementia: Translational Research & Clinical Interventions , raise concern that there may be an under appreciation of how common psychotic symptoms are in Alzheimer's disease, said Dr. Corinne Fischer, director of the Memory...

'Brain training' app found to improve memory in people with mild cognitive impairment

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A 'mind coaching' sport developed by researchers on the College of Cambridge might assist enhance the reminiscence of sufferers within the very earliest phases of dementia, suggests a research revealed at present in The Worldwide Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology . Credit score: Sahakian Lab, College of Cambridge A 'mind coaching' sport developed by researchers on the College of Cambridge might assist enhance the reminiscence of sufferers within the very earliest phases of dementia, suggests a research revealed at present in  The Worldwide Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology . Amnestic delicate cognitive impairment (aMCI) has been described because the transitional stage between 'wholesome ageing' and dementia. It's characterised by day-to-day reminiscence difficulties and issues of motivation. At current, there aren't any authorized drug remedies  for the cognitive impairments of sufferers affected by th...

Drug discovery: Alzheimer's and Parkinson's spurred by same enzyme

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This can be a Parkinson's illness mind pattern, stained with an antibody that solely acknowledges the N103 chunk of alpha-synuclein, which is generated by way of cleavage by AEP. Credit score: From Zhang et al NSMB (2017) Alzheimer's illness and Parkinson's illness aren't the identical. They have an effect on completely different areas of the mind and have distinct genetic and environmental threat elements. However on the biochemical degree, these two neurodegenerative illnesses begin to look related. That is how Emory scientists led by Keqiang Ye, PhD, landed on a possible drug goal for Parkinson's. In each Alzheimer's (AD) and Parkinson's (PD), a sticky protein types poisonous clumps in mind cells. In AD, the troublemaker inside cells is known as tau, making up neurofibrillary tangles. In PD, the sticky protein is alpha-synuclein, forming Lewy our bodies. Ye and his colleagues had beforehand recognized an en...

Small-molecule therapeutic boosts spatial memory and motor function in Rett syndrome mice

Girls born with a mutation in the  MECP2  gene initially develop typically, but at 6-18 months a gradual or sudden reversal of development indicates the onset of Rett syndrome. As this rare genetic neurological disease develops, affected girls experience slowed growth, a loss of communication skills and use of the hands, problems with movement and coordination, difficulty breathing, and seizures. The disease almost exclusively presents in girls, as the MECP2 gene is located on the X chromosome. With only a single copy of this chromosome, boys are affected in devastating ways by the mutation and rarely survive early infancy. The  MECP2  gene encodes methyl-CpG-binding protein-2 (MeCP2), a transcriptional regulator of many genes including brain-derived neurotrophic factor ( BDNF ). Decreased levels of BDNF are associated with a number of neurological disorders, such as depression , schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease. BDNF levels have also b...

No link seen between traumatic brain injury and cognitive decline

These findings appear in the  Journal of Alzheimer's Disease . More than 10 million individuals worldwide are affected annually by TBI, however the true prevalence is likely even greater given that a majority of TBIs are mild in severity and may not be recognized or reported. TBI is a major public health and socioeconomic concern resulting in $11.5 billion in direct medical costs and $64.8 billion in indirect costs to the U.S. health system in 2010 alone. According to the researchers the relationship between TBI and long-term cognitive trajectories remains poorly understood due to limitations of previous studies, including small sample sizes, short follow-up periods, biased samples, high attrition rates, limited or no reports of exposure to repetitive head impacts (such as those received through contact sports), and very brief cognitive test batteries. In an effort to examine this possible connection, researchers compared performance on cognitive tests over time for 706 par...

Traumatic brain injury associated with dementia in working-age adults

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The WHO has predicted that TBI will grow to be a number one reason behind demise and long-term sickness in the course of the subsequent ten years. Already one per cent of the inhabitants in america suffers from a long-term incapacity attributable to TBI. Credit score: R Raj (College of Helsinki) In line with a research encompassing the whole Finnish inhabitants, traumatic mind harm related to an elevated danger for dementia in working-age adults. But, no such relationship was discovered between traumatic mind harm and later onset of Parkinson's illness or ALS. The researchers imagine that these outcomes might play a big position for the rehabilitation and long-term monitoring of traumatic mind harm sufferers. Traumatic mind accidents (TBI) are among the many prime causes of demise and incapacity, notably among the many younger and center aged. Roughly one in three that undergo from moderate-to-severe TBI die, and roughly half of the ...

Sleep problems may be early sign of Alzheimer's

"Previous evidence has shown that sleep may influence the development or progression of Alzheimer's disease in various ways," said study author Barbara B. Bendlin, PhD, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "For example, disrupted sleep or lack of sleep may lead to amyloid plaque buildup because the brain's clearance system kicks into action during sleep. Our study looked not only for amyloid but for other biological markers in the spinal fluid as well." Amyloid is a protein that can fold and form into plaques. Tau is a protein that forms into tangles. These plaques and tangles are found in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. For the study, researchers recruited 101 people with an average age of 63 who had normal thinking and memory skills but who were considered at risk of developing Alzheimer's, either having a parent with the disease or being a carrier of a gene that increases the risk for Alzheimer's disease called apolipop...