J Nutr Health Aging
January 2025
Introduction: Intermittent fasting (IF) has emerged as a potential lifestyle intervention for mitigating cognitive decline and enhancing brain health in individuals with mild to major neurocognitive disorders. Unlike preventive strategies, this review evaluates IF as a therapeutic approach, focusing on its effects on neuroplasticity, inflammation, and cognitive function.
Methods: A narrative review was conducted using a comprehensive PubMed search with the terms "intermittent fasting AND neurocognition" and "intermittent fasting AND neuroplasticity".
Introduction: Cognitive reserve (CR) is a crucial factor in explaining individual differences in the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and cognitive decline. CR refers to the brain's ability to cope with pathology through compensatory mechanisms. This review examines the various methods used to measure, predict, and influence CR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Amyloid precursor protein (APP) plays a central role in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The accumulation of beta-amyloid protein is believed to be a crucial step in the development of AD. Therefore, understanding the complex biology of APP and its various cleavage products may be useful for developing effective therapeutic strategies for AD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To determine the association between antipsychotic prescriptions and incident dementia in patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, Cox Proportional hazard models estimated the association between antipsychotic prescriptions and incident dementia in participants ≥50 years of age with a schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder diagnosis over 12 years. Confounding was controlled by E-balance.
Introduction: Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia worldwide. Aducanumab, a monoclonal antibody targeting amyloid-beta, became the first disease-modifying treatment for mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild AD dementia and suggested that removing amyloid from the brain, especially in early AD, might make a difference in slowing cognitive decline.
Areas Covered: In this review, the authors outline aducanumab's clinical efficacy as shown through key clinical trials and discuss its approval by the Food and Drug Administration under the accelerated pathway, which sparked both hope and controversy.
Substance misuse, traditionally seen as a problem of early to mid-adulthood, is becoming increasingly prevalent among the older adult population (ages ≥65). Diagnosing and treating substance misuse in this vulnerable population is challenging because of multiple pre-existing medical comorbidities as well as polypharmacy. As such, it remains underdiagnosed and underrepresented in the literature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Cholinesterase inhibitors, along with memantine, are the mainstay of symptomatic treatment for AD (Alzheimer's disease); however, these medications are typically administered orally, which can be difficult for people with AD and their caregivers.
Areas Covered: In this drug profile and narrative review, the authors trace the development of the new FDA-approved transdermal donepezil. The authors discuss the studies showing its bioequivalence with the oral formulation, including two double-blinded placebo controlled non-inferiority trials.
Expert Opin Drug Metab Toxicol
June 2024
Importance: Neuropsychiatric syndromes (NPSs) are common in neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs); compromise the quality of life of patients and their care partners; and are associated with faster disease progression, earlier need for nursing home care, and poorer quality of life. Advances in translational pharmacology, clinical trial design and conduct, and understanding of the pathobiology of NDDs are bringing new therapies to clinical care.
Observations: Consensus definitions have evolved for psychosis, agitation, apathy, depression, and disinhibition in NDDs.
Importance: Agitation is a prevalent, distressing, and burdensome manifestation of Alzheimer dementia in need of an efficacious, safe, and well-tolerated treatment.
Objective: To confirm the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of brexpiprazole in patients with agitation in Alzheimer dementia.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This randomized clinical trial was a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled, fixed-dose, parallel-arm trial that ran from May 2018 to June 2022 at 123 clinical trial sites in Europe and the United States.
In 2021, the Global Brain Health Supplement Industry Market size was valued at US$7.6 billion. It is predicted to increase to US$15.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExpert Opin Ther Targets
November 2023
Introduction: Although there are several FDA-approved treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD), only recently have disease-modifying therapies received approval for use in patients. In this narrative review, we examine the history of aquaporin-4 (AQP4) as a therapeutic target for NMOSD (neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder) and as a potential therapeutic target for AD.
Areas Covered: We review the basic science and discovery of AQP4, a transmembrane water-channel essential to regulating water balance in the central nervous system (CNS).
Background: The International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA) published a provisional consensus definition of agitation in cognitive disorders in 2015. As proposed by the original work group, we summarize the use and validation of criteria in order to remove "provisional" from the definition.
Methods: This report summarizes information from the academic literature, research resources, clinical guidelines, expert surveys, and patient and family advocates on the experience of use of the IPA definition.
Objectives: To develop an agitation reduction and prevention algorithm is intended to guide implementation of the definition of agitation developed by the International Psychogeriatric Association (IPA).
Design: Review of literature on treatment guidelines and recommended algorithms; algorithm development through reiterative integration of research information and expert opinion.
Setting: IPA Agitation Workgroup.
Psychiatr Clin North Am
September 2022
Substance use disorders (SUDs) have not been rigorously studied in postacute and long-term care (PALTC) populations. SUDs are among the fastest growing disorders in the community dwelling older population. Untreated SUDs often lead to overdose deaths, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations due to SUD-related adverse effects, especially exacerbation of comorbid physical and mental health conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExpert Opin Pharmacother
August 2022
Introduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a debilitating disease, with no cure. Recently, a monoclonal antibody (aducanumab) directed toward amyloid aggregates was approved as a disease-modifying treatment (DMT) for the disease. Other compounds (symptomatic or DMTs) are at different stages of clinical trial development.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose Of Review: Increasing evidence points toward the importance of diet and its impact on cognitive decline. This review seeks to clarify the impact of four diets on cognition: the Mediterranean diet, the anti-inflammatory diet, the Seventh Day Adventist diet, and the Ketogenic diet.
Recent Findings: Of the diets reviewed, the Mediterranean diet provides the strongest evidence for efficacy.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic has forced a sudden global implementation of telemedicine strategies, including in long-term care (LTC) facilities where many people with dementia and Parkinson disease (PD) reside. Telemedicine offers a unique set of advantages for residents in LTC facilities if effectively supported and implemented, including expanded access to specialists in rural or underserved areas or for people with dementia who cannot travel for off-site visits. Many medical and psychiatric organizations have recently issued new or updated guidelines on the use of telemedicine.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe presence of hallucinations and delusions in patients with neurodegenerative disease correlates negatively with function, cognition, quality of life, and survival. When these patients still have insight, the treatment of mild hallucinations may reduce the risk of progression to more severe symptoms, specifically hallucinations without insight or delusions. On October 22, 2020, a multidisciplinary consensus panel comprising United States-based experts in geriatric psychiatry, geriatric medicine, family medicine, movement disorders, and neuropsychology was convened remotely to discuss best practices for using telemedicine to evaluate, diagnose, and treat psychosis in patients with neurodegenerative diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlzheimers Dement (Amst)
December 2021
Introduction: Hallucinations and delusions (H+D) are common in dementia, but screening for these symptoms-especially in busy clinical practices-is challenging.
Methods: Six subject matter experts developed the DRP3™ screen, a novel valid tool to detect H+D in dementia, assessed its content validity through alignment with DRP reference assessments (Scale for the Assessment of Positive Symptoms-Hallucinations + Delusions, Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Questionnaire, International Psychogeriatric Association Criteria), and retrospectively investigated its ability to detect H+D in HARMONY trial (NCT03325556) enrollees.
Results: All items from three reference assessments demonstrated significant agreement with the DRP3 screen among raters ( < .
© LitMetric 2025. All rights reserved.