Cardiac healthcare disparities and electrocardiography (ECG) differences in schizophrenia at end of life.

Schizophrenia is associated with early mortality of 15 to 20 years, and 80 % of deaths are due to cardiovascular disease with a three-times greater risk of sudden-cardiac-death. While lifestyle, medications, genetics, and healthcare disparities are contributing factors, the etiology of this complex process is not fully understood. The aim of this study is to examine cardiac-related healthcare utilization and electrocardiogram (ECG) outcomes in schizophrenia at the end of life (EOL).

Apathy as a Treatment Target in Alzheimer's Disease: Implications for Clinical Trials.

Apathy is one of the most prevalent, stable and persistent neuropsychiatric symptom across the neurocognitive disorders spectrum. Recent advances in understanding of phenomenology, neurobiology and intervention trials highlight apathy as an important target for clinical intervention. We conducted a comprehensive review and critical evaluation of recent advances to determine the evidence-based suggestions for future trial designs.

Community-Based Service Providers' Experiences With Activities for Persons With Dementia.

Persons with dementia (PWD) benefit from participating in meaningful activities. This study's objective was to learn the characteristics of successful meaningful activities from community-based service providers who work with PWD. Six group interviews were performed with 15 unique professionals from an adult day service or community-based coordinated care program.

Nursing Home Transfers for Behavioral Concerns: Findings from the OPTIMISTIC Demonstration Project.

Objectives: To characterize pretransfer on-site nursing home (NH) management, transfer disposition, and hospital discharge diagnoses of long-stay residents transferred for behavioral concerns.

Design: This was a secondary data analysis of the Optimizing Patient Transfers, Impacting Medical Quality, Improving Symptoms: Transforming Institutional Care project, in which clinical staff employed in the NH setting conducted medical, transitional, and palliative care quality improvement initiatives and gathered data related to resident transfers to the emergency department/hospital setting. R software and Microsoft Excel were used to characterize a subset of transfers prompted by behavioral concerns.

Agitation and impulsivity in mid and late life as possible risk markers for incident dementia.

To identify knowledge gaps regarding new-onset agitation and impulsivity prior to onset of cognitive impairment or dementia the International Society to Advance Alzheimer's Research and Treatment Neuropsychiatric Syndromes (NPS) Professional Interest Area conducted a scoping review. Extending a series of reviews exploring the pre-dementia risk syndrome Mild Behavioral Impairment (MBI), we focused on late-onset agitation and impulsivity (the MBI impulse dyscontrol domain) and risk of incident cognitive decline and dementia. This scoping review of agitation and impulsivity pre-dementia syndromes summarizes the current biomedical literature in terms of epidemiology, diagnosis and measurement, neurobiology, neuroimaging, biomarkers, course and prognosis, treatment, and ongoing clinical trials.

Association of brain amyloidosis with the incidence and frequency of neuropsychiatric symptoms in ADNI: a multisite observational cohort study.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between amyloid burden and frequency of existing and incidence of new neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in elderly with and without cognitive decline.

Methods: 275 cognitively normal controls (NC), 100 subjective memory complaint (SMC), 559 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and 143 Alzheimer's disease dementia subjects from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative received (F)-florbetapir positron emission tomography (PET) scans. Yearly neuropsychiatric inventory (Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI)/NPI-Questionnaire) data were collected from the study partners at each visit.

Development and Field Testing of a Long-Term Care Decision Aid Website for Older Adults: Engaging Patients and Caregivers in User-Centered Design.

Background And Objectives: Decisions about long-term care and financing can be difficult to comprehend, consider, and communicate. In a previous needs assessment, families in rural areas requested a patient-facing website; however, questions arose about the acceptability of an online tool for older adults. This study engaged older adults and family caregivers in (a) designing and refining an interactive, tailored decision aid website, and (b) field testing its utility, feasibility, and acceptability.

Health information management practices in informal caregiving: An artifacts analysis and implications for IT design.

Introduction: Unpaid informal caregivers of adult care recipients, including persons with dementia, experience multiple unmet information needs and information management challenges.

Objectives: To understand the current personal health information management (PHIM) practices in informal caregiving for adults with and without dementia.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were performed with ten informal caregivers-half of whom were caring for persons with dementia-and four formal caregivers at an adult day service.

Detection of tau in Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (PRNP F198S) by [F]Flortaucipir PET.

This study aimed to determine the pattern of [F]flortaucipir uptake in individuals affected by Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker disease (GSS) associated with the PRNP F198S mutation. The aims were to: 1) determine the pattern of [F]flortaucipir uptake in two GSS patients; 2) compare tau distribution by [F]flortaucipir PET imaging among three groups: two GSS patients, two early onset Alzheimer's disease patients (EOAD), two cognitively normal older adults (CN); 3) validate the PET imaging by comparing the pattern of [F]flortaucipir uptake, in vivo, with that of tau neuropathology, post-mortem. Scans were processed to generate standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) images.

State of Science: Bridging the Science-Practice Gap in Aging, Dementia and Mental Health.

The workforce available to care for older adults has not kept pace with the need. In response to workforce limitations and the growing complexity of healthcare, scientists have tested new models of care that redesign clinical practice. This article describes why new models of care in aging, dementia, and mental health diffuse inadequately into the healthcare systems and communities where they might benefit older adults.

Affective and emotional dysregulation as pre-dementia risk markers: exploring the mild behavioral impairment symptoms of depression, anxiety, irritability, and euphoria.

Background: Affective and emotional symptoms such as depression, anxiety, euphoria, and irritability are common neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in pre-dementia and cognitively normal older adults. They comprise a domain of Mild Behavioral Impairment (MBI), which describes their emergence in later life as an at-risk state for cognitive decline and dementia, and as a potential manifestation of prodromal dementia. This selective scoping review explores the epidemiology and neurobiological links between affective and emotional symptoms, and incident cognitive decline, focusing on recent literature in this expanding field of research.

Categorizing Health Outcomes and Efficacy of mHealth Apps for Persons With Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review.

Background: Use of mobile health (mHealth) apps is growing at an exponential rate in the United States and around the world. Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer disease, and related dementias are a global health problem. Numerous mHealth interventions exist for this population, yet the effect of these interventions on health has not been systematically described.

Comparing Crowdsourcing and Friendsourcing: A Social Media-Based Feasibility Study to Support Alzheimer Disease Caregivers.

Background: In the United States, over 15 million informal caregivers provide unpaid care to people with Alzheimer disease (AD). Compared with others in their age group, AD caregivers have higher rates of stress, and medical and psychiatric illnesses. Psychosocial interventions improve the health of caregivers.