Active clinical trials for "Alzheimer Disease"

This study will evaluate evidence-based treatments for adults with mild Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA). The aim of the study is to help identify efficacious communication and quality of life interventions for those with PPA and their care-partners. Participants with a diagnosis of PPA and their actively-engaged care partners will be involved in the study for 12 months. Each participant will receive a iPad equipped with the necessary applications and features for the study. Participants will complete evaluations, speech therapy sessions with a speech and language therapist, and sessions with a licensed social worker or related clinician. They will have access to Communication Bridge, a personalized web application to practice home exercises that reinforce treatment strategies. There are no costs to participate in this study.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) has gradually become one of the major global public health issues due to its prevalence, which increases with age and life expectancy, and the economic cost of caring for patients whose cognitive decline progressively leads to loss of functional autonomy. The diagnosis of AD is based on a multidisciplinary approach, involving, among other things, evaluation of the medical history together with clinical symptoms and signs, neuropsychological tests and neuroimaging. The quantification of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) core biomarkers (amyloid beta peptides [Ab1-40 and Ab1-42], total tau [t-tau] and its phosphorylated form on threonine 181 [p-tau(181)]) has progressively proven utility for the diagnosis of AD and its prodromal forms. CSF biomarkers are now included in international guidelines for the diagnosis of AD in research settings and clinical practice and the Alzheimer's Association appropriate use criteria for the use of lumbar puncture and CSF testing in the diagnosis of AD have been published. Such biochemical diagnostics are currently implemented in many specialized centers around the world. Recent progress in the biological diagnosis of AD is considerable, with the possibility, thanks to ultra-sensitive tests realized notably with the SIMOA technology, of having Ab1-40, Ab1-42, t-tau and p-tau(181) also detectable in the blood using commercial kits. The performance for AD detection has been evaluated by many groups including on retrospective samples. It is now essential to evaluate the interest of blood-based biomarkers of AD, prospectively and in real life condition to confront them with pre-analytical and analytical variabilities. It is also important to position them in relation to CSF analysis and AD management, from risk assessment, diagnosis, to therapeutic strategies.

According to several reports, the oxidative stress and the nutrition could have an impact in the Alzheimer disease. The association of these two parameters measurements and the cognitive impairment decline could help in a predictive diagnosis of cognitive decline evolution in patients presenting cognitive disorders. This is a monocentric prospective "routine care" clinical trial on patients showing cognitive troubles especially memory complaints. The objective is to demonstrate a correlation between oxydative stress and nutrition biomarkers and the clinical evolution of patients complaining of cognitive impairments. The neuropsychologic data collection (the mini mental Status Examination (MMSE), the clock test, the Grober-Buschke test (FCSR-IR), the executive function evaluated by the Trail making test, and the medical imaging (by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or tomography in case of MRI contraindication) will be realized during the study inclusion phase in the usual intake of patients. Whole blood samples for the oxydative and nutrition biomarkers measurements will be taken at the study inclusion day during the stay at the Day hospital dedicated to the routine intake of patients issued from the memory consultation. In this study, the principal evaluation criteria will be the MMSE score evolution during the 60 months of the patients follow-up, measured during the routine visits scheduled approximately every 6 months, according to the french national authority for health recommendations. It will allow evaluating the correlation between the cognitive decline evolution measured by MMSE during the Alzheimer disease or related diseases method during the 2 years follow-up, and the oxydative stress blood markers.

Millions of Americans have late-stage Alzheimer's and related dementias (ADRD), causing suffering due to loss of awareness of self and family, progressive dependency, physical and neuropsychiatric symptoms, and physical, emotional and financial strain for caregivers. Investigators now propose a multi-site randomized clinical trial of the ADRD Palliative Care (ADRD-PC) program for persons with late-stage ADRD and their family caregivers, triggered during hospitalization. Investigators aim to learn if this program of dementia-specific palliative care, standardized caregiver education, and transitional care is effective to reduce burdensome hospital transfers, improve symptom treatment and control, augment supportive services, and reduce nursing home transitions for patients, and to improve caregiver outcomes of communication, shared decision-making and distress.

This is a single center imaging study that will recruit 60 participants who are enrolled in the Effect of a Ketogenic Diet on Alzheimer's Disease Biomarkers and Symptoms: Brain Energy for Amyloid Transformation in AD (BEAT-AD) Study protocol. This cohort of patients will receive a maximum of 3 [11C]Acetoacetate (AcAc)/[18F]Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET scans over 18 weeks as part of this supplemental trial.

The goal of this study will be to design, implement and test the impact of a quality improvement (QI) intervention that uses an EHR CDS tool among physicians newly ordering an antipsychotic medication for older adults with ADRD. The study team hypothesizes that the intervention will reduce each participating clinician's pill days per patient prescribed.

This Phase 1 study looks at how a new videogame-based program can help residents and care partners prepare for ADLs in a fun way with minimal risk, potentially reducing escalating problems associated with ADL completions.

The aim of this clinical study is to examine the effect of an intervention program developed for informal caregivers of Alzheimer's patients on caregivers' burden of care, psychological well-being and psychological resilience.The main questions it aims to answer are: What is the effect of the Structured Caregiver Support Program (SCSP) on caregivers burden? What is the effect of the SCSP on psychological well-being? What is the effect of the SCSP on psychological resilience? Participants (intervention group) will attend at least 6 sessions of an 8-session SCSP. Researchers will compare with the control group to see if the training provided is effective.

The protocol is organized into three Phases - In Phase I an online training program will be developed in "Care of Persons with Dementia in their Environments" (COPE) -an evidence-based bio-behavioral dementia program -using state-of-the science simulation and best online learning practices. In addition an automated approach to fidelity monitoring using computational linguistics (automatic classification programs) will be developed. In Phase II, ten long term care community-based (PACE) organizations will be randomized into two groups; 5 PACE organizations will serve as the "control" site in which staff training will be provided via the traditional high intensity face-to-face training in the COPE program. 5 PACE organizations will serve as the comparison and staff will be trained using the online COPE training program. Phase II will evaluate the whether an online training program is the same or better in improving PACE staff competency and fidelity to COPE principles and protocols compared to a high intensity face-to-face traditional form of training. In Phase III the efficacy of the COPE program on PACE participant outcomes by type of COPE training will be evaluated. Each of the PACE organizations will enroll 5 persons with dementia and their caregivers in the study. This will yield 50 family dyads (25 dyads in traditional training sites and 25 dyads in online training sites). Dyads will be followed for 4 months. Non-inferiority analysis will be used to assess whether dyads will yield the same or better outcomes regardless of how PACE staff were trained.

The purpose of this trial is to test the effects of a personalized music intervention (Music and Memory, Inc.) on agitated and aggressive behaviors for nursing home residents with dementia.