Dementia in the News

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and seven global biopharmaceutical companies announced on Wednesday the formation of the Massachusetts Neuroscience Consortium. The announcement took place in the Massachusetts Pavilion at the 2012 BIO International Convention. Speakers included Patrick; Susan Windham-Bannister, president & CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center; James Hoyes, president, EMD Serono; Jeffrey Flier, Dean of Harvard Medical School; and patients.

About one in eight Alzheimer's patients with severe confusion has a major complication wtihin a year of getting out of the hospital, in a new study.

Those complications, accordaing to the researchers, include mental decline, being put in a nursing home and even death.

The study, however, cannot say whether the combination of delirium and a hospital stay caused those outcomes - just that together, they're a risk factor.

A new study adds to growing evidence that the complications of diabetes may extend to the brain, causing declines in memory, attention and other cognitive skills.

The Working Mother Research Institute surveyed nearly 2,500 women, including more than 1,200 who have cared for a loved one with Alzheimer's, to get a clear picture of how the responsibility of caregiving affects their emotional, financial and work lives, as well as their families.

It seemed as if it would be a perfectly ordinary occasion, that hot August day in 1959. Three generations of a large Oklahoma family gathered at a studio in nearby Perryton, Tex., to have a photo taken of the elders, 14 siblings ranging in age from 29 to 52. Afterward, everyone went to a nearby park for a picnic.

Dementia is thought of as a scourge of the developed world, with its aging population, but it actually may occur at an even higher rate in developing countries, or so, at least, report researchers led by Martin Prince at King's College London U.K., in the May 23 Lancet. A shift in these countries' populations toward aging, combined with low education and undercounting, is blamed for the finding.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved on April 10th a brain imaging method for individuals who are being evaluated for Alzheimer's Disease (AD) or other causes of progressive cognitive impairment. The new method uses a drug called Amyvid (also known as Florbetapir or AV-45) along with Positron Emission Tomography (PET). MGH ADRC researchers were co-investigators for the clinical trial in which Amyvid was developed and have used this and other, similar PET methods for research purposes since 2005. 

Two research studies, co-led by UC Davis neurologist Charles DeCarli and conducted by an international team that included more than 80 scientists at 71 institutions in eight countries, has advanced understanding of the genetic components of Alzheimer's disease and of brain development. Both studies appear in the April 15 edition of the journal Nature Genetics.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Amyvid (florbetapir F18 injection), Avid Pharmaceuticals/Eli Lilly and Company's positron emission tomography (PET) tracer, for A-Beta plaque imaging in cognitively impaired patients being clinically evaluated for Alzheimer's disease. The compound will be available for use in June, with the aim of helping researchers rule out - not diagnose - the disease.

Worldwide, nearly 35.6 million people live with dementia. This number is expected to double by 2030 (65.7 million) and more than triple by 2050 (115.4 million). Dementia affects people in all countries, with more than half (58%) living in low- and middle-income countries. BY 2050, this is likely to rise to more than 70%.

Treating and caring for people with dementia currently costs the world more than US$604 billion per year. This includes the cost of providing health and social care as well as the reduction or loss of income of people with dementia and their caregivers.