Evaluation of an ontology-based system for computerized cognitive rehabilitation.

Objectives: This paper describes the results of a randomized clinical trial about the effectiveness of a computerized rehabilitation treatment on a sample of 31 patients affected by Parkinson disease.

Methods: Computerized exercises were administered by the therapists to the intervention group (n = 17) through the CoRe tool, which automatically generates a big variety of exercises leveraging on a stimuli set (words, sounds and images) organized into a dedicated ontology. A battery of standard neuropsychological tests was performed for patients' assessment at baseline, after the treatment (that lasted 1 month), and after 6 months from the treatment stop.

Modeling Alzheimer Disease Through Functional Independence and Participation.

Introduction: The relationship between cognitive and functional impairment in Alzheimer Disease (AD) at the earliest stages of the disease is not well characterized. This study aimed at investigating such relationships along AD evolution by means of the Disability Assessment for Dementia (DAD).

Methods: Consecutive pairs of AD outpatients and their primary informal caregivers were enrolled.

Quality of life in Alzheimer disease: a comparison of patients' and caregivers' points of view.

Unlike in other chronic diseases, the Quality of Life (QoL) of patients affected by Alzheimer Disease (AD) has not been well established, primarily because of the difficulties stemming from the study of patients with cognitive disorders. Because no cure is currently available for AD, the optimization of QoL represents the best possible outcome attainable in all stages of disease, making QoL assessment mandatory. This study identified variables related to patients' QoL and examined the agreement between patients' and caregivers' QoL ratings.