A big Alzheimer's drug trial is about to offer real hope for treating the disease — or crush it

Scientists at Eli Lilly are racing to wrap up a clinical trial on a drug that could be the first major advance in treating Alzheimer's in more than a decade — or a crushing reminder of why the memory-destroying disease has bedeviled researchers for so long.

This is the third time Lilly has tested the drug in large-scale trials. The first two tests flopped. But the company, which has spent about $3 billion on Alzheimer's research over 25 years, believes it has finally identified the patients most likely to benefit from its therapy.

Common Prostate Cancer Treatment Linked to Later Dementia

Summary: Men with prostate cancer who are treated with testosterone lowering drugs are almost twice as likely to develop dementia within 5 years as those with the same cancer who are treated with different therapies, a new study reports.

Source: Stanford.

A new retrospective study of patient medical records suggests that men with prostate cancer who are treated with testosterone-lowering drugs are twice as likely to develop dementia within five years as prostate cancer patients whose testosterone levels are not tampered with.

Common Prostate Cancer Treatment Linked to Later Dementia

A new retrospective study of patient medical records suggests that men with prostate cancer who are treated with testosterone-lowering drugs are twice as likely to develop dementia within five years as prostate cancer patients whose testosterone levels are not tampered with.

The study, by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, also demonstrates emerging techniques for extracting biomedical data from ordinary patient medical records.

Researchers Create A Gene Therapy Treatment That May Prevent Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer’s disease is devastating both for those who suffer from it and for those who love them. It is also expensive. It’s estimated that the current worldwide cost of coping with Alzheimer’s is $818 billion. A cure for Alzheimer’s is not available and current treatments for the disease focus on mitigating symptoms rather than eliminating causes. Recent research has provided evidence that the memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s may be preventable and reversible. Now, new research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports on a gene therapy treatment that stopped the development of Alzheimer’s disease dead in it’s tracks.

Alzheimer's Disease, A Humanitarian Crisis That Leaves Patients Needing Asylum

Depth of dusk, a husband and wife tend to the day’s quotidian kitchen chores. He tries to help, but, of late, the house where he’s lived with her for some 50 or more years has become an uncomfortable space. He sets down the plate he’s struggling to put away, and she is, for a moment, relieved, but then she’s not because he says to her “I want to go home.”

The bedroom, the bath and the kitchen–these intimate spaces make a house a home, and this man, my patient, wanted to leave his.

More Than 50 Percent of People Over 90 With Alzheimer’s Use Psychotropic Drugs

Summary: According to a new study, hunger can suppress rival drive states such as fear, anxiety, thirst or social needs.

Source: University of Eastern Finland.

Psychotropic drug use is rather common among persons aged 90 years of more diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease compared with those who were diagnosed at younger age, concludes study conducted at University of Eastern Finland. Persons aged 90 years or more used antipsychotics 5 times and antidepressants 2.5 times more often than those without the disease in the same age group. The results were published in the Age and Ageing journal.

Care for caregivers: Report finds they are often ignored

About 12 years ago, Nancy Menchhofer’s husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the age of 59. When she moved him to a care facility five years ago, it was the hardest thing she had ever done. Menchhofer visits him once a week and feeds him lunch. He doesn’t know who she is or why she’s there.

It’s been a long road, she said. A road filled with frustration, sadness and worry.

“So often people would say, ‘How’s Bob?’” said Menchhofer, 70, of Chesterfield. “But they would never say, ‘How are you?’”

Study finds Alzheimer’s manifests differently in Hispanics

Certain symptoms associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease, including agitation and depression, affect Hispanics more frequently and severely than other ethnicities. The findings, published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience (JNCN), suggest that Alzheimer’s disease manifests itself differently in Hispanic populations.

“Our study shows that the severity and proportion of neuropsychiatric symptoms is significantly higher in a Hispanic group compared to non-Hispanic whites,” says lead researcher Ricardo Salazar, M.D., a geriatric psychiatrist at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso (TTUHSC El Paso). “This could have a significant impact on the treatment and understanding of how Alzheimer’s disease progresses in Hispanics.”

6 Big Mysteries of Alzheimer's Disease

Despite intensive, worldwide research efforts for more than three decades to better understand Alzheimer's disease, there are still numerous mysteries surrounding the condition.

Alzheimer's disease is a slowly progressing brain disorder. In people with the condition, abnormal deposits of a protein called amyloid-beta forms sticky plaques in the brain, and strands of the protein tau twist around, causing tangles that ultimately kill brain cells and cause a loss of memory, thinking and reasoning skills.

10 daily apps to help caregivers take care of their loved ones

Balancing schedules. Remembering medication. Tracking symptoms.

Being a caregiver for a family member can be as taxing as it is rewarding, and the role often goes underappreciated. While a support network of family and friends is crucial, apps can help alleviate some of the stresses that come with caregiving.

Trial Helps Doctors Tell Lewy Body Dementia From Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

Summary: A new study reports on how the clinical profiles of Lewy body dementia differ from Alzhiemer’s or Parkinson’s disease.

Source: Ohio State University.

Knowing that many clinicians find it difficult to correctly diagnose patients with Lewy body dementia, researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center set out to develop a clinical profile for these patients. Their findings are published online in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

The study compared 21 patients with Lewy body dementia to 21 patients with Alzheimer’s disease and 21 patients with Parkinson’s disease. The patients were carefully matched by age, gender, education, race, degree of cognitive impairment, and degree of motor (physical) impairment. Pairs were compared using cognitive, functional, behavioral and motor measures.

As employees care for aging parents, few firms step up to help

Teresa Briggs still had a 17-year-old son at home when her father was diagnosed with brain cancer.

As her father’s health deteriorated over the next two years, Briggs, a managing partner and vice chairwoman of Deloitte LLP’s western region, split her time between being a mom, a daughter and a caregiver, managing her father’s business and navigating her own career.

It wasn’t easy.