[Sleep, an issue for nurses and patients].

A three-day training programme on sleep in hospitals was created in 2008 on the initiative of the national association for the continuing training of hospital staff, in collaboration with the French ministry of health. 448 nurses have been trained thanks to a participative programme integrating new, interactive pedagogical tools.

[Nutrition and Alzheimer's disease].

Weight loss is frequent in Alzheimer's disease. Its severity increases with the progression of the disease and may be a predictor of patients' mortality. Weight loss often precedes the diagnosis and may be considered as a feature of the disease itself.

Impact of nutritional status on the evolution of Alzheimer's disease and on response to acetylcholinesterase inhibitor treatment.

Background: Weight loss is frequently observed in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), as observed in clinical practice and reported in the literature. However, information on the evolution of nutritional status and its impact on the prognosis of AD is still scarce.

Objective: Our aim was to determine the impact of nutritional status on the evolution of AD and on the response to treatment with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChEI) by prospective one-year follow-up of AD patients living at home.

The practice of obtaining approval from medical research ethics committees: a comparison within 12 European countries for a descriptive study on acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in Alzheimer's dementia.

Across Europe the protection of research subjects with dementia has to meet a variety of national legislation and ethical codes. This research project compared how in different EU countries one single descriptive multinational study on dementia treatment strategies was evaluated by medical ethical committees and how the issues of informed consent and capacity to consent were dealt with. The study that was evaluated is the ICTUS study, which studies the impact of treatment with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors (AChE-I) on Europeans with mildly or moderately severe Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Improvement of weight and fat-free mass with oral nutritional supplementation in patients with Alzheimer's disease at risk of malnutrition: a prospective randomized study.

Objectives: To study the effects of oral nutritional supplements (OS) on body weight, body composition, nutritional status, and cognition in elderly patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Design: Prospective, randomized, controlled study.

Setting: Geriatric wards and day care centers in the Toulouse area, France.