Melatonin has multiple proposed therapeutic benefits including antioxidant properties, circadian rhythm synchronisation and sleep promotion. Since these areas are also recognised risk factors for dementia, melatonin has been hypothesised to slow cognitive decline in older adults. Participants with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) were recruited from the community for a 12-week randomised placebo-controlled parallel, feasibility trial of 25 mg oral melatonin nightly.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInsomnia is common in adolescents with associated negative health consequences. This systematic review and meta-analysis assessed the effect of cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia interventions on insomnia symptoms and subjective sleep quality in adolescents aged 10-19 years. Key electronic databases, including CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Scopus, were systematically searched from inception to October 2024, and five randomised controlled trials met inclusion criteria for qualitative synthesis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is highly prevalent among older adults and has been associated with cognitive decline and dementia risk. The suitability of screening tools for detecting OSA in memory clinic settings is unclear.
Objective: To evaluate the utility and validity of the STOP-Bang questionnaire (SBQ) and pulse oximeter as a screening tool, compared to gold-standard polysomnography (PSG) in older adults attending a memory clinic.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, studies reported that restricted living conditions were associated with worse subjective sleep quality. This effect might have been caused by reduced light exposure during lockdowns. We investigated light exposure levels, subjective and objective sleep and physical activity levels in older adults during restricted and free-living conditions after the pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is on the rise, driven by various factors including more sensitive diagnostic criteria, increased awareness, enhanced technology through at-home testing enabling easy and cost-effective diagnosis, and a growing incidence of comorbid conditions such as obesity. Treating symptomatic patients with OSA syndrome to enhance quality of life remains a cornerstone approach. However, there is a lack of consensus regarding treatment to improve cardiovascular disease (CVD) outcomes, particularly in light of overall negative results from several randomized controlled trials (RCT) indicating no benefit of positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy on primary and secondary CVD events.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The Action To promote brain HEalth iN Adults study aimed to determine the feasibility and applicability of recruitment using home blood pressure (BP) monitoring, routine blood biochemistry and videoconference measures of cognition, in adults at high risk of dementia.
Design: A decentralised double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised feasibility trial with a four-stage screening process.
Setting: Conducted with participants online in the state of New South Wales, Australia.
Introduction: Recent growth in the functionality and use of technology has prompted an increased interest in the potential for remote or decentralized clinical trials in dementia. There are many potential benefits associated with decentralized medication trials, but we currently lack specific recommendations for their delivery in the dementia field.
Methods: A modified Delphi method engaged an expert panel to develop recommendations for the conduct of decentralized medication trials in dementia prevention.
Psychopharmacology (Berl)
September 2024
Cannabis and its major constituents, Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), are being widely used to treat sleep disturbances. However, THC can cause acute cognitive and psychomotor impairment and there are concerns that driving and workplace safety might be compromised the day after evening use. Here, we examined possible 'next day' impairment following evening administration of a typical medicinal cannabis oil in adults with insomnia disorder, compared to matched placebo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In mid-later life adults, early-onset and late-onset (i.e., onset ≥50 years) depression appear to be underpinned by different pathophysiology yet have not been examined in relation to autonomic function.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis comprehensive review delves into the potential of intranasal insulin delivery for managing Alzheimer's Disease (AD) while exploring the connection between AD and diabetes mellitus (DM). Both conditions share features of insulin signalling dysregulation and oxidative stress that accelerate inflammatory response. Given the physiological barriers to brain drug delivery, including the blood-brain barrier, intranasal administration emerges as a non-invasive alternative.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPoint-of-collection testing (POCT) devices are widely used in roadside and workplace drug testing to identify recent cannabis use by measuring the presence of Δ-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in oral fluid (OF). However, the performance of POCT devices with oral medicinal cannabis products remains poorly described. In a randomised, double-blinded, crossover trial, adults with insomnia disorder (n = 20) received a single (2 mL) oral dose of oil containing 10 mg THC + 200 mg cannabidiol, or placebo, prior to sleep.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere is accumulating evidence that has linked OSA with increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Here we present the protocol for an Australian, multi-site randomised controlled, parallel open-label trial which will evaluate the feasibility for a full-scale trial investigating the effects of treating OSA on cognitive decline in older adults at risk of dementia within memory clinic settings. We will randomise 180 older adults to either the treatment intervention group or control group for 2 years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is highly prevalent in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The gold standard treatment for OSA is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Long-term, well-powered efficacy trials are required to understand whether CPAP could slow cognitive decline in individuals with MCI/AD, but its tolerability in this group remains uncertain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Insomnia is the most prevalent sleep disorder, with few effective pharmacotherapies. Anecdotal reports and recent preclinical research suggest that cannabinol (CBN), a constituent of derived from delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, could be an effective treatment. Despite this, the isolated effects of CBN on sleep have yet to be systematically studied in humans.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFShift workers are at increased risk of obesity and metabolic diseases, but their eating patterns on work and non-workdays are understudied. We aimed to examine whether energy intake and macronutrient intake of day and night shift nurses were different during work and non-workdays. We used a mixed-methods approach to study food intake of shift working nurses from two hospitals during day and night shifts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEpidemiologic studies have demonstrated that short sleep duration is associated with an increased risk of cardio-metabolic health outcomes including cardiovascular disease mortality, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and metabolic syndrome. Experimental sleep restriction studies have sought to explain these findings. This review describes the main evidence of these associations and possible mechanisms explaining them.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Individuals living with Alzheimer's disease (AD) demonstrate extensive deficits in social cognition. To date, no studies have investigated the feasibility of an intranasal oxytocin (INOT) treatment to improve social cognition in individuals living with AD.
Objective: We conducted a pilot trial to determine recruitment feasibility, enrolment acceptability, and adherence to an INOT treatment to inform on the subsequent design of a future randomized controlled trial (RCT).
Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the first-line treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Although CPAP improves symptoms (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReduced heart rate variability can be an early sign of autonomic dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases and may be related to brain dysfunction in the central autonomic network. As yet, such autonomic dysfunction has not been examined during sleep-which is an ideal physiological state to study brain-heart interaction as both the central and peripheral nervous systems behave differently compared to during wakefulness. Therefore, the primary aim of the current study was to examine whether heart rate variability during nocturnal sleep, specifically slow wave (deep) sleep, is associated with central autonomic network functional connectivity in older adults 'at-risk' of dementia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to review the relationship between midlife dyslipidemia and lifetime incident dementia.
Methods: The databases Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane were searched from inception to February 20, 2022. Longitudinal studies examining the relationship between midlife lipid levels on dementia, dementia subtypes, and/or cognitive impairment were pooled using inverse-variance weighted random-effects meta-analysis.