When discussing the concept of cognitive impairment, many terms are used, including dementia, amnestic disorder, cognitive impairment not dementia (CIND), cognitive impairment associated with normal aging, mild cognitive impairment, vascular cognitive impairment, and vascular cognitive impairment not dementia (VCIND). Although definitions of such terms are clinically important, there is significant uncertainty about associating a given cognitive syndrome with specific neuropathology.1 More »

The United States Census Bureau projects that by 2010 nearly 13% of the US population will be over the age of 65. The elderly are one of the most rapidly growing segments of the US population and are expected to account for more than 20% of the total population by 2050.1 In 2001, the prevalence of dementia in North America was 6.4%. A 49% increase in the number of people with dementia is expected by 2020, and a 172% increase by 2040.2 Patients with dementia may lack the capacity to consent to... More »

Of the screening tools available to help identify early symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which is best? In a presentation at the U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress in Las Vegas, Kevin Gray, MD, director of the Geriatric Neuropsychiatry Clinic, Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System, Dallas, gave a withering critique of the widely used Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and instead recommended simple and quickly administered tests that he says are more sensitive and... More »

Bayer Schering Pharma of Germany will provide its experimental PET radiotracer florbetaben to the Swiss-based biopharmaceutical company AC Immune to evaluate the effects of a vaccine being tested to treat patients with Alzheimer´s disease. More »

Massachusetts General Hospital researchers are using automated MRI software to detect individuals in the preclinical phase of Alzheimer's disease with 95% accuracy. More »

Massachusetts General Hospital researchers are using automated MRI software to detect individuals in the preclinical phase of Alzheimer’s disease with 95% accuracy, according to a cohort study. More »

Imaging scientists achieved a major breakthrough when they proved it was possible to predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease using PET scans of neurochemical activity. University of Michigan researchers are going for the next neuroimaging milestone by showing that the same technique can also aid in the differential diagnosis of dementia. More »

Mortality in elderly patients with dementia markedly and progressively increases with extended use of antipsychotics, according to the first long-term controlled study of risk in this population. Earlier evidence of this risk was from short-term trials not exceeding 14 weeks. More »

Alzheimer disease (AD) is more than twice as likely to develop in elderly persons with orthostatic hypotension (OH) as in those without OH, according to a new study presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. More »