Historic breakthrough: WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience team first to use ultrasound to treat Alzheimer's

World-leading brain experts at West Virginia University’s Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute are celebrating the historic breakthrough Alzheimer patients around the globe have been awaiting.

“For Alzheimer’s, there’s not that many treatments available, despite hundreds of clinical trials over the past two decades and billions of dollars spent,” said Dr. Ali R. Rezai, a neurosurgeon at WVU who led the team of investigators that successfully performed a phase II trial using focused ultrasound to treat a patient with early stage Alzheimer’s.

The Hidden Reasons Why Alzheimer's Caregivers Are So Stressed

When Nancy Daly was helping to care for her late mother, who had Alzheimer’s disease, the stress was so great that she would often shut herself in a bathroom and cry into a towel. For more than two years, Daly regularly flew from her home in California to her mother’s in Maryland, eventually to no recognition. “It was as if my entire childhood was erased, when she did not know me,” says Daly, 59. “But I had to grit my teeth and bear it. It was my job to be there.”

Caregivers not taking full advantage of California’s Paid Family Leave

Caregivers in California aren’t taking full advantage of the state’s Paid Family Leave benefit as they fulfill care duties for loved ones, according to a new report by the California Work and Family Commission and Human Impact Partners.

Questions to Ask When a Loved One Is Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or Dementia

IT STARTS OUT SLOWLY, almost imperceptibly. The misplaced keys. The forgotten birthday or anniversary. Using the wrong word or losing the thread in mid-conversation. These are often dismissed as typical signs of aging, but in some people, they may be the earliest signs that something bigger is at work – the development of dementia or Alzheimer's disease. When a doctor diagnoses dementia or Alzheimer's in your loved one, you should be sure to ask a lot of questions to make sure you understand your loved one's current state of being and so you can appropriately prepare for how this progressive disease could change over time.

Why do so many clinical trials for Alzheimer’s fail? New discovery sheds light

Researchers have discovered a vicious feedback loop underlying brain degeneration in Alzheimer’s disease, which may explain why so many drug trials have failed.

The study also identifies a clinically approved drug – fasudil – that could break the vicious cycle and protects against memory loss in animal models of Alzheimer’s.

5 Caregivers Share 11 Tips for Looking After Someone With Alzheimer's

An Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis isn’t just devastating for the person with the condition. Many people will end up serving as caregivers for loved ones with Alzheimer’s, which can be incredibly distressing, isolating, and life-altering.

We spoke with several Alzheimer’s caregivers for their best advice on how to look after someone with the disease—and how to care for yourself in the process, too.

When ICU Delirium Leads To Symptoms Of Dementia After Discharge

Doctors have gradually come to realize that people who survive a serious brush with death in the intensive care unit are likely to develop potentially serious problems with their memory and thinking processes.

This dementia, a side effect of intensive medical care, can be permanent. And it affects as many as half of all people who are rushed to the ICU after a medical emergency. Considering that 5.7 million Americans end up in intensive care every year, this is a major problem that until recently, has been poorly appreciated by medical caregivers.

The Comforting Fictions of Dementia Care

The large central room of the memory-care unit was designed to look like an old-fashioned American town square. There was a small fountain, surrounded by plants and a low stone wall; there were a couple of lampposts, and benches, tables, and chairs set about. The carpet was mottled with darker and lighter shades of green, to resemble grass growing and bending in different directions. Along the walls were the façades of what looked like clapboard houses, with wooden shutters and shingled pitched roofs and porches that extended into the room. Two long hallways, which led off from opposite sides of the central room, looked like streets in the same town, with more clapboard façades and porches on either side. These façades were not altogether fake: each front door opened onto a suite of small rooms—living room, bedroom, bathroom—that was a resident’s home.

Five Questions Families Ask About Alzheimer’s Caregiving

As someone who works with families of older adults, including adults with Alzheimer’s and other dementias, I hear many of the same questions from one family to the next. “How does this happen? What will it mean? How do we go about caring for someone with Alzheimer’s?” These are questions understandably on people’s minds. There are many more. Five common questions are below.

How to Cope With Caregiver Boredom

During what seemed like hours that we sat in crowded medical waiting rooms, my mother and I made small talk that quickly petered out. I flipped through old magazines when I couldn’t concentrate on reading my book. I scrolled through my phone absentmindedly. I was irritated and restless. I was also bored.

Infections that Can Cause Dementia

Cognitive impairment caused by an infection is not very common, but it is an important step in the evaluation of anyone suspected of having Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia.