Active clinical trials for "Alzheimer Disease"

The investigators are going to test if it is possible to detect early dementia with the digital game "memory". The investigators are going to test 15 healthy people and 15 patients with early dementia. The test consists of playing the game "memory" several times. While playing, several parameters are stored. The investigators are going to test if any correlation can be found between these parameters and the cognitive state of the person as tested by the Mini-Mental status examination.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the olfactory neuroepithelium as a biomarker of Alzheimer disease. The early diagnosis of Alzheimer disease is of importance for obtaining better response to treatment, but recently reported biomarkers have some limitations. Olfactory neuroepithelium tissue which is accessible through office-based biopsy without difficulty is known to reflect brain pathology that confirms the diagnosis of Alzheimer disease. This study will help in the early detection and treatment of Alzheimer disease.

The purpose of this study is to investigate prospective merory (memory of intentions) in healthy controls and in aMCI (amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment) and AD (Alzheimer Disease) patients.

This study aims to prospectively examine the memory problem perceptions of patients with memory complaints [MCs] and their accompaniers during the diagnostic process.

Analysis of 4 CSF Alzheimer's disease biomarkers (total and phosphorylated tau protein, Aß40 and Aß1-42) and morphological brain MRI in older patients (>60 year's old) with bipolar disorder, after an evaluation of their cognitive functions. Comparison between two groups of patients : patients with cognitive disorders and patients without cognitive disorders. The objective is to describe and compare the profile of those biomarkers in those two populations.

From the past research that has been done the investigators have learned that brain cells die & leave a deposit in the brain known as beta-amyloid. Since alzheimer's is a slow acting disease the natural immune system does not respond to this illness so this builds up in the brain. As it builds up it gets into the neurotransmitters in the brain causing more brain cells to die. As these buildups occur dementia sets in due to more of the brain dying & effects normal activity. STUDY WAS CANCELLED Hypnotherapy will be used to do the following things: Increase the immune system The immune system will begin to clean up the beta-amyloid buildup That removes damage cells of the brain Increase more blood flow to the brain Allows the active brain cells to be trained to carry out daily activities STUDY WAS CANCELLED

Approximately 66 million informal caregivers care for someone who is ill, disabled, or aged. These caregivers experience significant distress associated with caregiving, which may be particularly salient in the context of inherited conditions. Previous studies have not examined caregiving from a network perspective, nor have they considered how cognitive and emotional responses, such as caregivers worry for themselves and relatives acquiring the disease or guilt related to the genetic etiology of their child s illness, as possible stressors; the current project fills this literature gap. Caregiving processes may vary across type of illness and the life course. In illnesses that impact children, parents and grandparents may take on caregiving roles whereas in conditions that impact adults, spouses and adult children may provide care. Caregivers must adapt to the strain of caring for their affected relatives and this adaptation may differ depending on caregiver roles. The caregiver s support network may influence adaptation, impacting the health and well-being of patients, their caregivers, and other relatives. This project, comprised of 5 substudies, will examine social contexts surrounding families involved in caring for individuals with chronic inherited conditions from a relational perspective. Surveys and interviews will assess participants cognitions and emotions about the disease, caregiving burden and caregiving/support network systems. In addition, biomarkers will be considered in 2 substudies to examine how caregiving roles and expectations impact health among caregivers. As part of our current inquiry, we have developed an assessment tool aimed at understanding caregiver experiences related to dietary practices in the context of metabolic conditions. To evaluate the psychometric properties of this scale, we propose a fifth substudy under the current protocol. We aim to recruit at least 5550 participants through residential/daycare centers, advocacy groups, and the NIH Clinical Center. We will recruit formal caregivers, multiple biological and non-biological adult relatives of affected individuals and typically developing controls to construct and evaluate caregiving/support network systems. This project will use a social network framework to develop and adapt common measures of caregiving roles to evaluate burden, perceptual bias, and unmet expectations in caregiving. The psychometric properties of these new measures, characteristics of family caregiving and support networks, and how these network characteristics are associated with caregiving strain and well-being, including biomarkers of physical health, will be investigated. The moderating role of family members cognitions and emotions and disease context will be considered. Findings will guide future research to develop network-based interventions promoting positive adaptation to the presence of inherited conditions in families through improved social environments and coping skills.

The current study is intended to enrich and extend the database of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and healthy control (HC) MEG scans and will include patients meeting DSM-IV-TR criteria for dementia of Alzheimer's type, and age- and gender-matched HC subjects meeting criteria of normal neurological function. This study will include 2 MEG and electroencephalography (EEG) scans on approximately 80 AD subjects and 80 HC subjects over approximately 30 days. All subjects will have MEG/EEG scans at baseline and 28 - 35 days after baseline. Within one day of each scan visit AD subjects will undergo 4 standard functional tests while HC subjects will undergo 2 standard functional tests. This study will test the following hypotheses: MEG scans of resting-state, eyes-open brain function reveal patterns of correlated activity that differ between HC subjects and subjects diagnosed with dementia of Alzheimer's type; Patterns of correlated activity measured in AD subjects correspond to other measures of disease severity such as standard functional test scores; MEG scan patterns for HC subjects are consistent across repeated measures taken over a 30 day period.

This study will evaluate a handheld event-related potential (ERP) testing device from Neuronetrix, Inc. as a method to collect ERP data in an outpatient setting. An ERP system records electrical signals at the scalp that are produced by the brain when performing cognitive tasks. By doing this study, we hope to evaluate various performance parameters of the COGNISION(TM) system.

This study is collecting tissue specimens (blood, urine and saliva) from up to 1000 patients, with and without cognitive disorders, to store in the Bio Bank for future research. The specimens could be used in future research projects that could help improve the accuracy of diagnosis of a disease, predict who might develop a disease, help monitor the disease, or improve the understanding of the disease. Patients are only being recruited from Beaumont Hospitals Geriatric Clinic.