Cost of dementia set to hit $83b over 50 years
Dementia is the third leading cause of death in Australia and is forecast to affect almost 1 million people by 2050, yet research into the disease is critically under-resourced, says Alzheimer’s Australia. National Health and Medical Research Council figures show $26 million was allocated to dementia research in 2012-13, compared with $183 million for cancer [...]
Mental health study identifies dementia carers’ suffering
Photo: Researchers are now looking at the disparity in support for carers in rural and regional areas. (Reuters: Michaela Rehle – file photo) A Queensland study has found people who care for dementia sufferers are more likely to contemplate suicide than the general population. About 300,000 Australians suffer from dementia and more than 65 per cent [...]
Dementia care services: an interview with Sue McLean
Interview conducted by April Cashin-Garbutt, BA Hons (Cantab) Please could you give a brief introduction to dementia? The term ‘dementia’ is used to describe symptoms that occur when the brain is affected by specific diseases and conditions, such as Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, Lewy Bodies or Korsakoff’s syndrome. Dementia affects a person’s ability to remember, [...]
Late-life depression associated with prevalent mild cognitive impairment, increased risk of dementia
Depression in a group of Medicare recipients ages 65 years and older appears to be associated with prevalent mild cognitive impairment and an increased risk of dementia, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Neurology, a JAMA Network publication. Depressive symptoms occur in 3 percent to 63 percent of patients with mild [...]
Loneliness, Not Living Alone, Linked to Dementia
Pasotraspaso. Jesus Solana / Getty Images Yes, there is a difference. Why one is more likely to trigger serious memory problems? In a study published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Tjalling Jan Holwerda of the Free University Medical Center in Amsterdam found that participants who reported feeling lonely — regardless of how [...]
Navigating the Labyrinth of Traumatic Brain Injury to Discover a Secondary
By Jonathan Fellus, MD Working with individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) every day, I see the debilitating effects and long-term struggles firsthand. TBIs are complicated and can cause a multitude of other neurological and medical issues, but with appropriate and individualized care, patients can recover and ease back into daily life—slowly but surely. TBI [...]
The perils of pre-diseases: forgetfulness, mild cognitive impairment
OVER-DIAGNOSIS EPIDEMIC – David Le Couteur discusses recent changes in the definition of dementia and their ramifications. The pattern of over-diagnosis is the same for many diseases: we screen healthy people and those with minimal symptoms; we use sophisticated technologies that detect early or minor abnormalities that may not progress; and we treat people with [...]
Dementia now a national health priority
Dementia has been added to the list of national health priority areas following a meeting of federal and state health ministers in Sydney. The first priority areas, set down in 1996, were cardiovascular health, cancer control, injury prevention and control, and mental health. Diabetes was added in 1997, followed by asthma in 1999, arthritis and [...]
Dementia patients allowed to live at home thanks to new research program – News
A Johns Hopkins research program that brought resources and counselors to elderly Baltimore residents with memory disorders such as dementia significantly increased the chance they could continue to live successfully at home, a preference for most of them. As part of the 18-month Maximizing Independence at Home (MIND) trial, a dementia care coordinator came into [...]
Doctors on the front lines of end-of-life care
ST. LOUIS – Two decades ago, many Alzheimer’s patients with advanced dementia received feeding tubes when they could no longer swallow. Today, few of these terminally ill patients get feeding tubes or breathing machines. “We’re growing up. We’re seeing these medical bills,” said Dr. David Carr, chief of geriatric medicine at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. “When it [...]
