Research published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry conducted by researchers at Bangor University, Wales found that people who received cognitive rehabilitation felt their performance of daily activities improved. Carers of those receiving the treatment also noted an improvement in their own quality of life.

Cognitive rehabilitation is a treatment where people with dementia work with health professionals to identify personal goals and develop strategies for achieving them. 

Goals were tailored to the participants’ specific needs and included things such as remembering details of jobs to be done around the house, maintaining concentration when cooking, learning to use a mobile phone and remembering the names of people at an exercise class. The cognitive rehabilitation group said they saw an improvement in their ability to carry out all of the chosen activities.

The trial compared eight weekly individual sessions of cognitive rehabilitation with relaxation therapy and no treatment. As well as setting and working on goals the cognitive rehabilitation group also learnt and practised techniques for taking in new information, managing stress and maintaining attention and concentration.

The Head of Research at Alzheimer’s Society, says, ‘This research is the first trial of its kind to evaluate the effectiveness of the ‘cognitive rehabilitation’ technique.   The findings provide a basis for a larger study of cognitive rehabilitation as a means of assisting people in the early stages of dementia and their families to better manage the condition.’

Millions will develop dementia in the next ten years according to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance. In order to enable people with dementia to live well with the condition we need more funding to further research in this area.

Researchers report that drugs, called anticholinergics, block acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter, and are widely-used medical therapies. They are sold over the counter under various brand names such as Benadryl, Dramamine, Excedrin PM, Sominex, Tylenol PM, and Unisom. Other anticholinergic drugs, such as Paxil, are available only by prescription. 

Older adults most commonly use drugs with anticholinergic effects as sleep aids and to relieve bladder leakage problems.

Researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine conducted a six-year observational study, evaluating 1,652 Indianapolis area African-Americans over the age of 70 who had normal cognitive function when the study began. In addition to monitoring cognition, the investigators tracked all over-the-counter and prescription medications taken by study participants.

The scientists found that taking one anticholinergic significantly increased an individual’s risk of developing mild cognitive impairment .  Taking two of these drugs doubled this risk.

 Posted by the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance

“Millions of aging seniors suffer from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease,” explains Jesse Slome, director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance.  These conditions account for the longest and most costly causes for long term health care.

When a person ages they lose certain spines the researchers noted.  We did not know which ones and how their loss impacted cognition.  The new study shows which spines are lost and what their impact is on brain function, giving us a foundation to research treatment interventions to protect against age-related cognitive decline.

The research team studied six young adult and nine older rhesus monkeys as they participated in a delayed response test. The monkeys watched as food was baited and hidden, and then a screen was put in front of them so they could no longer see the location of the hidden reward.

At the beginning of the test, the screen was raised immediately and the monkeys were able to find the food reward right away. The subject’s memory was tested by increasing the time that the reward was blocked from view to test if the monkeys retained where the reward was placed over longer intervals of time. Aged monkeys performed significantly worse on the tests than young monkeys, especially as the time intervals increased.

The researchers determined that the older monkeys lacked the thin spines but retained the larger spines, indicating that the loss of the thin spines may be responsible for the monkeys’ inability to learn and retain information during the test. For the first time, the researchers determined that the large spines were stable, which provides a synaptic basis for the observation that expertise and skills learned early in life are often maintained into old age. 

The study is published in the June 2 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

“This is great news for adults in their 50s and early 60s who can still qualify for long-term care insurance,” explains Jesse Slome, director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance.  Dementia  and alzheimer’s are the most costly conditions among aging seniors.  “Once a cognitive condition is diagnosed, there’s no way an individual will qualify for insurance,” Slome notes.

Ohio State University Medical Center medical experts developed the Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination (SAGE) to help identify individuals with mild thinking and memory impairments at an early stage. The research shows four out of five people (80 percent) with mild thinking and memory (cognitive) issues will be detected by this test, and 95% of people who are normal thinking will have normal SAGE scores.

Many of the assessment tools for cognitive disorders being used today, while accurate, have aspects that deter their use.   Other diagnostic tests require the patient to use a computer, which can add heightened anxiety to some older adults who may be infrequent users of technology.

The SAGE self-assessment is a practical tool for a busy primary care office said the test developer who makes the tests available free of charge to healthcare personnel. It only takes a paper, pen and a few minutes to take the test and because it’s self-administered, it doesn’t necessarily take time away from the appointment. “They can take the test in the waiting room while waiting for the doctor,” said Scharre.

The study involved 254 study participants, 59 years of age or older, who took the SAGE self-assessment. Sixty-three (63) individuals were randomly selected to have a one-day clinical evaluation utilizing a battery of physical, neurological and cognitive tests.   

SAGE scores compared favorably with the mini-mental state examination (MMSE), a brief questionnaire test that is commonly used in medicine to screen for cognitive impairments and dementia.

Researchers collected data on older people without dementia who were asked to respond to statements such as: “I feel good when I think of what I have done in the past and what I hope to do in the future,” and “I have a sense of direction and purpose in life.” 

After an average four years of follow-up, 16.3 percent of the people in the study developed Alzheimer’s disease. Taking into account other factors that could account for Alzheimer’s, the researchers found that people who responded most positively to statements about their lives were the least likely to develop the condition. Also, people who said they had more purposeful lives were less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment and had a slower rate of cognitive decline. 

People who scored 4.2 out of 5 on the purpose-in-life measure were about 2.4 times less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, compared with people who scored 3.0, the study found. 

It’s not known whether there is a biological reason for this finding, the researchers noted.  “One possibility is that, truly, somebody with high purpose in life might have a lower risk of developing dementia because of what’s involved in purpose in life,” one medical researcher said. 

“As the population ages and dementia becomes a more frequent diagnosis, there’s increasing impetus to determine the causes of the disease,” explains Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Associatioon for Long-Term Care Insurance.   ”If happiness and living a purposefulness in life are associated with a decreased risk of dementia, then this is worth knowing.”

Dementia (senility) is a progressive, degenerative disorder that affects memory, language, attention, emotions, and problem solving capabilities. A variety of diseases cause dementia including Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and other neurodegenerative disorders.   Findings of the study appear in the Annals of Neurology. 

According to the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance between six and 10 percent of the individuals 65 years and older have dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease accounting for two-thirds of those cases.

Researchers at the University of California completed a study on 330 participants who were primarily women (69.7%) between the ages of 90 to 102.  these indivviduals showed no signs of dementia at baseline. Researchers identified 140 new cases of dementia during follow-up with 60% of those cases attributed to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), 22% vascular dementia, 9% mixed AD and vascular dementia and 9% with other or unknown cause.

Their findings show dementia incidence rates almost double every five years in those 90 and older.  Researchers found the overall incidence rate based on 770 person-years of follow-up was 18.2% per year. 

Rates increased with age from 12.7% per year in the 90-94 age group, to 21.2% per year in the 95-99 age group, to 40.7% per year in the 100+ age group. Incidence rates were very similar for men and women. Previous results from The 90+ Study found higher estimates of dementia prevalence in women (45%) compared to men (28%), a result also seen in other similar studies.

“Because of improved medical care of cardiovascular disease many obese individuals reach old age,” said Jesse Slome executive director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance.  “They are far more likely to incur health problems in their old age  which now appear to include dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease.”  Long-term care insurers do not offer good health discounts to applicants who are overweight.

The study compiled data from a study of Swedish twins that took place over the course of nearly 40 years, from 1963 to 2002; the results were the same for both men and women.  Other studies reported in the journal show that obesity appears particularly threatening in the presence of other health problems, such as poor muscle strength and depression.

Similarly, changes in weight also signify declines in overall health. A team of researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle, found that such fluctuations are significant indicators of future physical limitations and mortality in the elderly. Researchers used data from the Cardiovacscular Health Study, which included information from over 3,000 individuals aged 65 and older from 1992 to 1999.

 They discovered that a history of cyclically losing and gaining weight increased a person’s chance of having difficulty with activities of daily living – bathing, dressing, eating, etc. – by 28 percent.

Study findings were published online in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.   For many years, published studies and popular media have perpetuated the myth that smoking is protective against the development of AD on medical researcher commented. 

The disease’s impact on quality of life and health care costs continues to rise notes Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance.  Smokers do not qualify for the lowest rates for long-term care insurance due to the anticipated added risk.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 5.3 million Americans currently have the disease, and that number will escalate rapidly as the baby boom generation ages. AD also triples health care costs for Americans aged 65 and older, the organization states. 

The UCSF team conducting the research reviewed 43 published studies from 1984 to 2007. Authors of one-fourth of the studies had an affiliation with the tobacco industry.  The researchers determined that the average risk of a smoker developing AD, based on studies without tobacco industry affiliation, was estimated to be 1.72, meaning that smoking nearly doubled the risk of AD. 

In contrast, the team found that studies authored by individuals with tobacco industry affiliations, showed a risk factor of .86 (less than one), suggesting that smoking protects against AD. When all studies were considered together, the risk factor for developing AD from smoking was essentially neutral at a statistically insignificant 1.05.

The complete list of the newly recognized medical conditions that clearly qualify patients for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income disability benefits – Compassionate Allowance conditions – can be found  below. 

“The addition of these new conditions expands the scope of Compassionate Allowances to a broader subgroup of conditions like early-onset Alzheimer’s disease,” Commissioner Astrue said.  “The expansion we are announcing today means tens of thousands of Americans with devastating disabilities will now get approved for benefits in a matter of days rather than months and years.” 

The quick identification of these conditions allows the agency to electronically target and make speedy decisions for the most obviously disabled individuals.  

In developing the expanded list of conditions, Social Security held public hearings and worked closely with the National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer’s Association, the National Organization for Rare Disorders, and other groups reports the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance. 

For more information about the agency’s Compassionate Allowances initiative, go to www.socialsecurity.gov/compassionateallowances.

New Compassionate Allowance Conditions

1.                  Alstrom Syndrome

2.                  Amegakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia

3.                  Ataxia Spinocerebellar

4.                  Ataxia Telangiectasia

5.                  Batten Disease

6.                  Bilateral Retinoblastoma

7.                  Cri du Chat Syndrome

8.                  Degos Disease

9.                  Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease

10.              Edwards Syndrome

11.              Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva

12.              Fukuyama Congenital Muscular Dystrophy

13.              Glutaric Acidemia Type II

14.              Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), Familial Type

15.              Hurler Syndrome, Type IH

16.              Hunter Syndrome, Type II

17.              Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

18.              Junctional Epidermolysis Bullosa, Lethal Type

19.              Late Infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses

20.              Leigh’s Disease

21.              Maple Syrup Urine Disease

22.              Merosin Deficient Congenital Muscular Dystrophy

23.              Mixed Dementia

24.              Mucosal Malignant Melanoma

25.              Neonatal Adrenoleukodystrophy

26.              Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses, Infantile Type

27.              Niemann-Pick Type C

28.              Patau Syndrome

29.              Primary Progressive Aphasia

30.              Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy

31.              Sanfilippo Syndrome

32.              Subacute Sclerosis Panencephalitis

33.              Tay Sachs Disease

34.              Thanatophoric Dysplasia, Type 1

35.              Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy

36.              Walker Warburg Syndrome

37.              Wolman Disease

38.              Zellweger Syndrome

To address these concerns and enable mild dementia victims to continue to lead independent lives for an extended period of time has been researched, and possibly solved.  The effort brought together some of the leading dementia specialists in Europe, doctors from the Netherlands, Sweden and Northern Ireland, with teams of software researchers and developers.

Separate devices and solutions exist for many of the needs, and if people learn how to use them early on, then they may be able to continue using them quite far into the disease, notes Jesse Slome, executive director of the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance.  But it then becomes a problem for the patient to remember where the devices are, and how each of them works. Also, in later stages of the disease, simplified devices are needed, and at that stage it is usually too late to teach anybody how to use even the simpler devices. 

Researchers set out to create two very user-friendly devices, one home-based and one mobile, featuring all the high-priority and previously unmet needs, as identified by end users.  

The end result was a flat-screen monitor for the home, which can be either wall mounted or standalone, and a mobile smart phone with a much simplified user interface installed. 

All the user has to deal with are simple, self-explanatory icons on the touch screen. The in-home system can be set up to start issuing reminders from wake-up time in the morning until bedtime. These can be recorded in a friend or relative’s voice, and give instructions for all sorts of activities such as picking up the morning newspaper, brushing teeth, preparing or warming pre-prepared meals, laundry and dish washing and myriad other daily activities. 

The system was field-tested on user groups in three countries, and the majority of users perceived significant improvement in their lives and their ability to get through the day. 

About two per cent of the population of Europe suffers from mild dementia.