Cognitive, functional and physical activity impairment in elderly with Alzheimer's disease.

Unlabelled: Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a progressive degenerative disorder that negatively affects quality of life of patients and family members.

Objective: The aim of this study is to compare the cognition, level of physical activity and functioning of elderly individuals with mild AD and those without dementia.

Methods: The study comprised 24 elderly with mild AD (mean age = 76.

[Psychoneuroimmunological predictors for burden in older caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease].

Introduction: The responsibility of giving care to patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) may result in health changes in the older caregiver. It is important to explore the factors which influence the presence of care burden and to create strategies to face this condition. In this context, the aims of present study were to investigate the relationships between psychoneuroimmunological parameters and determine the predictors to burden in older caregivers of patients with AD.

P300 latency and amplitude in Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review.

Unlabelled: The P300 plays a key role as a method for monitoring and evaluating dementia, including Alzheimer's disease.

Objective: The goal of this study was to search for articles which analyzed P300 latency and amplitude values in Alzheimer's disease.

Methods: We searched in the following databases: Web of Science, Pub Med, Psyc Info, Medline, Biological Abstracts and Scielo using the following keywords: speed of information processing, processing speed, information processing, aged, older, elderly, older people, alzheimer dementia, alzheimer disease, Alzheimer and cross-references of selected articles.

Physical exercise modulates peripheral levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF): a systematic review of experimental studies in the elderly.

Unlabelled: The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review of studies that analyzed the effect of physical exercise on the peripheral levels of BDNF in elderly individuals.

Method: We conducted a search in PsycINFO, Biological Abstracts, Pubmed, Web of Science, and Science Direct from 1990 to 2011, using the following keywords: "physical exercise", "physical activity", "physical therapy", "training", "BDNF", "neuroplasticity", "neurotrophins", "neuroplasticity proteins", "aged", "older", "elderly". The articles were considered for inclusion in the review if they were studies with elderly, assessed peripheral (serum and/or plasma) BDNF and evaluated an acute exercise or chronic exercise (training).

Depressive symptoms and level of physical activity in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the presence of depressive symptoms in patients with Alzheimer's disease, to assess whether there was an association between physical activity level and depressive symptoms in this population, and to assess whether more active patients had lower rates of depressive symptoms when compared with less active patients.

Methods: The study included 37 patients with Alzheimer's disease and used the following instruments: the Geriatric Depression Scale, the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia and the Baecke Questionnaire Modified for the Elderly. The Shapiro-Wilk test was used to determine whether the data were normally distributed.

Non-pharmacological interventions on cognitive functions in older people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can be a stage of pre-dementia. There is no consensus about pharmacological treatment for this population, so it is important to structure non-pharmacological interventions for increasing their cognitive reserve. We intended to analyze the effects of non-pharmacological interventions in the cognitive functions in older people with MC, in form of a systemic review.