Doctor Focuses on the Minds of the Elderly | HeraldTribune.com

The Merry Widows moved to the community when their husbands developed Alzheimer’s disease and looked to Dr. Agronin to prepare them for what lay ahead. But while treating their husbands’ disease, he became their psychiatrist, too. He urged the women to attend therapy groups, made suggestions about medication for anxiety and encouraged new bonds of friendship.

Dr. Agronin calls them his graduates — a trio of success stories among 3,700 patients he is responsible for, in what, by all accounts, is the largest geriatric psychiatry practice in the nation, at the Miami Jewish Health Systems.

The doctor is a rare breed even in Florida, which has the highest proportion of people older than 65. There are only 17 board-certified geriatric psychiatrists in the state, and a mere six here in southeast Florida, where snowbirds from New York often come to perch. In March, acknowledging the crisis in care, the federal Institute of Medicine began a study of the shortage of geriatric mental health workers nationwide.

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Alzheimer's Caregivers Need Care Too - MSN Health - Aging Well

The growing number of people with Alzheimer's disease in the United States means that more people are becoming caregivers, a responsibility that health experts warn can pose risks to body and mind.

But caregivers can take various steps to protect their health, says Rebecca Axline, a clinical social worker at the Nantz National Alzheimer Center in Houston.

To keep stress in check, for instance, she emphasizes the need to find time and ways to reenergize, to keep meaningful things in your life and to remain social and participate in your favorite activities.

Axline also offered communication techniques that can help reduce caregivers' stress and frustration:

• Always identify yourself and call the person you're caring for by name.
• Talk slowly and clearly. Use short sentences and break down instructions into steps.

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HealthNewsReview.org | Independent Expert Reviews of News Stories | Holding Health and Medical Journalism Accountable

Like the NPR story we also reviewed, this story about revised guidance on diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease does a nice job of clearly distinguishing what is relevant to readers and what is of interest only to researchers.

Our Review Summary

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This report tells readers the stark reality, that lab tests and brain scans for Alzheimer’s are not ready for clinical use and even when the tests are validated, they will have limited value to patients until effective treatments are developed.

This story includes a comment about how early diagnosis could help patients and families plan for the future; but it would have been nice to see an acknowledgment of the potential psychological and social consequences.

Like the NPR story, this report fails to tell readers about the ties between quoted experts and companies that are developing tests and treatments, even though those ties were disclosed. This story quoted several experts, but none who are independent of the panel that issued the revised diagnosis guidance.

Why This Matters:

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It is more than just validation of the new diagnostic approaches being described that will be needed before these can influence clinical practice. All of the diagnostic test characteristics will need to be examined, including the ability of the test results to accurately predict which patients are likely to develop AD (the false positive, false negative, positive and negative predictive value, etc). Additionally, the reliability of the measures will need to be determined. From a clinical perspective, until there are treatments that can alter progression, other than helping patients understand what to expect in the future, currently there is not a lot of benefit and there are potential harms for knowing early on if a patient has this condition.

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The Alzheimer List, Washington University

As Director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Washington University, I reluctantly have decided to phase out the Alzheimer List, effective February 1, 2011.  I have made this decision based on two factors.  First, the use of the list has been steadily declining.  In January 2005, there were 1,057 monthly posts to the List, but in May 2010 there only were 175 posts. This declining use possibly reflects the fact that, since the List was originated in 1994, many more resources now are available for families and caregivers of persons affected by Alzheimer’s disease and other dementing disorders.  Indeed, many of the current posts to the List do not address caregiver or related issues. Second, for us to support the List requires resources such as personnel, hardware, and maintenance of archives.  Although the List is not a major resource burden, in this period of constrained research funding we must manage any expenditures very carefully.  We have notified our funding agency, the National Institute on Aging, of our decision to end the List and they are in agreement.

At end of this message, please find links to other online support groups that may be useful for some of you. The publicly accessible archive of all posts to the List will be maintained after February 1, 2011, (i.e., after the List itself is halted) as the archive has proven valuable for several reasons, including for caregiving research.             

Finally, I would like to thank all of you who have made the List a vital initiative for sharing and supporting caregiver interests.  I also want to recognize Geri Hall for her tremendous contributions to the List over many years; her caring and insightful comments have been of great help to many people and we very gratefully acknowledge her efforts.

Sincerely,

John C. Morris, MD (morrisj@abraxas.wustl.edu)

Alternative Online Support Groups:

Alzheimer’s Association message boards and chat rooms:
http://www.alz.org/apps/we_can_help/support_groups.asp

ElderCare Online Forum:
http://eldercare.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x

Alzheimer's Care Giver Support Group (started by former members of the ADRC Alzheimer List:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AlzheimerSupport/

---

via alzheimer.wustl.edu

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Popular drug for mild Alzheimer's largely a flop - Health - Alzheimer's Disease - msnbc.com

A drug frequently prescribed to treat people with mild Alzheimer's disease does not appear to be an effective therapy for many of these patients, according to a new study.

The results show the drug, memantine, is no better than a dummy pill when it comes to ameliorating disease symptoms, including the decline of mental abilities, the researchers say. There is also meager evidence that the drug works for patients with moderate Alzheimer's, the researchers say.

Memantine is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat patients with moderate and severe Alzheimer's. However, physicians often prescribe it off-label to those with mild forms of the disease.  About 19 percent of U.S. patients with mild Alzheimer's disease take the drug, the researchers say. The drug is intended to improve cognitive functions and make it easier for patients to perform daily activities.

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Five new genes linked to Alzheimer's | ABS-CBN News | Latest Philippine Headlines, Breaking News, Video, Analysis, Features

Scientists said Sunday they had uncovered 5 genes linked to the onset of Alzheimer's disease, doubling the number of genetic variants known to favor the commonest form of dementia.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Genetics, may provide clues on the causes of this incurable and complex disease and help doctors predict who is most at risk, they said.

In the largest such studies to date, some 300 scientists in two consortia combed the genomes of 54,000 people -- some afflicted, others not -- to tease out the newly identified genetic variations.

The two projects started out independently but later swapped their data, enabling each group to confirm the overall findings.

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