Effects of physical activity training in patients with Alzheimer's dementia: results of a pilot RCT study.

Background: There is evidence that physical activity (PA) is of cognitive benefit to the ageing brain, but little is known on the effect in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). The present pilot study assessed the effect of a home-based PA training on clinical symptoms, functional abilities, and caregiver burden after 12 and 24 weeks.

Methods: In an RCT thirty patients (aged 72.

[Innovative healthcare strategies in geriatric psychiatry and psychotherapy].

Background: The development of efficacious treatment strategies in older adults with mental illnesses is necessary. The growing number of homebound patients and the incidence of physical comorbidities and impairment of activities of daily living are important factors for interdisciplinary treatment strategies in old age and there is a need for home-based services providing medical and psychosocial interventions.

Objective: Recent studies have provided information on home-based and collaborative treatment strategies in mentally ill elderly patients.

Cardiovascular risk and hippocampal thickness in Alzheimer's disease.

Cardiovascular risk factors influence onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease. Among cognitively healthy people, changes in brain structure and function associated with high blood pressure, diabetes, or other vascular risks suggest differential regional susceptibility to neuronal damage. In patients with Alzheimer's disease, hippocampal and medial temporal lobe atrophy indicate early neuronal loss preferentially in key areas for learning and memory.

APOE associated hemispheric asymmetry of entorhinal cortical thickness in aging and Alzheimer's disease.

Across species structural and functional hemispheric asymmetry is a fundamental feature of the brain. Environmental and genetic factors determine this asymmetry during brain development and modulate its interaction with brain disorders. The e4 allele of the apolipoprotein E gene (APOE-4) is a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease, associated with regionally specific effects on brain morphology and function during the life span.