Examining Voting Capacity in Older Adults with and without Cognitive Decline.

Background: Nowadays, controversy exists regarding the stage of cognitive decline and/or dementia where voting capacity is diminished.

Aim: To evaluate whether general cognitive status in advancing age predicts voting capacity in its specific aspects.

Methods: The study sample comprised 391 people: 88 cognitively healthy older adults (CH), 150 people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), and 153 people with Alzheimer's disease dementia (ADD).

Effectiveness of nonpharmacological approaches in patients with mild cognitive impairment.

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients are at increased risk of developing dementia. There is a conflict if cognitive interventions can improve cognitive and functional performances in order to delay the development of dementia.

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a holistic cognitive rehabilitation program on patients with MCI.

Severely stressful events and dementia: a study of an elderly Greek demented population.

There is evidence that proneness to experience psychological distress is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the present study, an attempt is made to examine the possible association between stressful events and cognitive impairment of the elderly, based on a sample of 1271 patients (500 male, 771 female) diagnosed with dementia according to the DSM-IV criteria and 140 age- and gender-matched cognitive healthy subjects. All patients were recruited from the Memory and Dementia Outpatient Clinic of the 3rd University Department of Neurology in "G.

Severe psychological stress in elderly individuals: a proposed model of neurodegeneration and its implications.

During clinical practice, degenerative diseases in some patients appear after exposure to a severe psychological stress. Several studies have suggested that the duration of exposure to corticosteroids or stress, the dose of corticosteroids and the vulnerability of the hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex areas targeted by elevated stress hormones, mediate the damaging effects of elevated corticosteroids. Although understanding what triggers the transition from adaptive plasticity to the maladaptive effects of stress in the elderly is important, one of the great challenges is to determine individual differences in vulnerability to stress-induced events in both animal and human populations, and to devise strategies that may help protecting the brain from permanent damage.

Functional cognitive assessment scale (FUCAS): a new scale to assess executive cognitive function in daily life activities in patients with dementia and mild cognitive impairment.

Background: Several tests have been developed to examine performance of demented patients in daily life activities. However, most of them are based either on the subjective evaluation of performance by the patient him/herself, or on the reports of relatives. Functional Cognitive Assessment Scale (FUCAS) is a new reliable (alpha > 0.