Active clinical trials for "Cognitive Dysfunction"

This study is designed as a prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized parallel-group study that will be completed at the clinical research facility at St. James' Hospital and at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. A total of 100 amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients will receive a (real or control) non-invasive transcutaneous electrical stimulation procedure. Patients will be assigned to one of four groups. One group will receive active stimulation, while the three groups will be control groups. One groups will be receive sham stimulation (inactive control), while a second group will receive active stimulation and local anesthesia and a third group will stimulate a different nerve (active control; same sensation different nerve). The investigators will include three control groups to verify that the effect is real and location specific and cannot be associated to a sensation effect. The investigators have opted to use a parallel-group design as it is unclear what the carry-over effect and/or wash-out period will be for stimulation. To eliminate subjective bias, all patients and the investigator testing the endpoint measures will be blinded to the type of intervention. The primary outcome, i.e. memory recall, will be determined by a word association task recorded immediately after stimulation, 7 days after stimulation, and 28 days after stimulation. The secondary outcomes is neurophysiological changes determined by resting state EEG, which will be assessed immediately before and after stimulation in the first session. The investigators will conduct this study as follows: Screening aMCI patients. Randomly assigning aMCI patients to one of the four groups. Administering one session active stimulation (n = 25) or control (n = 25 in each of three control group) stimulation paired with a word-association task; administered by research assistant. Behavioral assessments after each of the three blocks of studying the word associations and neural measures immediately after the last session of Behavioral assessments (T0). Behavioral assessments at seven (T1) and 28 (T2) days after stimulation.

Phase 1 study evaluating the safety of combined bilateral globus pallidus internus (GPi) and nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) stimulation in treating levodopa responsive motor symptoms of Parkinsonism and cognitive dysfunction, respectively, in patients with moderate to advanced Parkinson's disease having mild cognitive impairment.

Background: A significant proportion of older adults suffered from age-related diseases particularly dementia, also known as major neurocognitive disorder (NCD), which is becoming a worldwide health burden. In principle, Interventions for dementia should have optimal benefits at the earliest preclinical stage yet no evidence has been found to support a particular pharmacological approach in preventing cognitive decline during the stage of mild NCD. Non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS), on the other hand, is increasingly recognized as a potential alternative to tackle this problem. Typical NIBS include transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). A new kind of NIBS named Transcranial Pulse stimulation (TPS) is also recently used for treating patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD).TPS is a kind of NIBS that uses repetitive sin ultrashort pulses in the ultrasound frequency range to stimulate the brain, and it can provide better spatial precision and reach deeper brain regions comparing to tDCS and TMS. The mechanism of TPS is to convert the mechanical TPS stimulus into biochemical responses, thus influence some fundamental cell functions. A recent study showed that there is a significant improvement in using TPS in treating AD. However, there has been no study investigating the effect of TPS on older adults with mild NCD. Objective: This study is an open-label self-controlled study to assess the effectiveness and tolerability of TPS on cognition in older adults with mild NCD. We hypothesized that a 2-week TPS intervention could significantly improve patient's global cognition which will be maintained for 12 weeks. Design: The current study is an open-label self-controlled interventional trial of TPS guided by neuro-navigation using structural MRI. All participants will undergo the treatment as usual (TAU) period as self-controlled for 12 weeks. They will then receive a six-session TPS intervention for 2 weeks with three sessions per week. A 12 weeks post-intervention assessment will then be conducted. Data Analysis: Primary outcome and secondary outcomes assessment would be carried out at baseline, after TAU period, immediately after the intervention and 12 weeks after the intervention. The primary outcome will be the change of the Hong Kong Chinese version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (HK-MoCA). The secondary outcome includes specific cognitive domains, daily functioning, mood, and apathy. The intention-to-treat analysis would be carried out. Significance: The result of the current study would provide further data on the effectiveness and tolerability of TPS as a new treatment in patients with mild NCD.

The number of older Veterans with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) seeking care within the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system is increasing and is expected to increase more rapidly as Vietnam era Veterans age. The cognitive effects of MCI and subsequent neurodegenerative disorders can adversely affect a Veteran's ability to function independently and failure to provide appropriate intervention can result in an increased need for healthcare services and VA benefits in the future. The VA currently spends over $19,000 annually per patient to care for Veterans with dementia (Zhu et al., 2009), and delaying the onset of dementia even by one to two years will result in substantial financial savings to the VA and quality of life gains for the Veteran. Since present pharmacological interventions have demonstrated limited efficacy, alternative treatments are needed. Therefore, an evidence-based cognitive training intervention that optimally addresses the needs of older Veterans with MCI is of critical importance to the VA patient care mission.

Dementia is one of the most pressing health care issues of the 21st century. Evidence suggests that exercise enhances cognitive function in healthy older adults. Most research has focused on aerobic training (AT). Therefore, investigators aim to assess the individual effects of AT and resistance training (RT), as well as the interaction effect of combining the two types of exercise training, on cognitive function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment.

This is a human clinical study involving the isolation of autologous bone marrow derived stem cells (BMSC) and transfer to the vascular system and inferior 1/3 of the nasal passages in order to determine if such a treatment will provide improvement in neurologic function for patients with certain neurologic conditions. http://mdstemcells.com/nest/

Music has powerful effects on memory in patients with neurodegenerative diseases. However, although there is anecdotal evidence for beneficial effects of active music interventions in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), there is lack of high-quality research investigating this issue, and the cognitive, emotional, and social factors that contribute to potentially beneficial effects of music making in AD patients are largely unknown. In a randomised controlled intervention trial, a cohort of AD patients will undergo twelve months of music lessons specifically tailored for AD patients. Structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) will be used to determine changes in brain age (as compared to two control groups), and voxel-based morphometry will be computed to determine contributions of different factors of the music intervention (cognitive, emotional, and social) to plastic changes of brain morphology, and a potential deceleration of brain atrophy. In addition, quality of life of patients. In cooperation with the Bergen municipality, and a strong network of national and international partners, the neurocognitive music therapy will be implemented, involving training of music therapists, and communication of results to patients, patient groups, and therapists.

Currently, there is no available drug to treat the symptoms of neurodegenerative and vascular cognitive disorders that affect millions of people worldwide. Methylphenidate is indicated at high dose (1 mg/kg/day) in children having attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and remains the best cognitive enhancer drug at lower dose. However, there is no proof of efficacy with chronic administration, outside ADHD, and concern remains about long-term cardiac and vascular risks in elderly and particularly in population with vascular risk factors and drug abuse in young people. Moreover, the effect appears to be very limited at the very advanced stage of dementia, for which the neuronal plasticity is too reduced to expect a benefit of training. Taken all together, we sought to develop a new paradigm of association of both pharmacological and non-pharmacological procedure to enhance the neuronal plasticity in order to expect a persistent effect on slight to mild cognitive disorders with benefit on ecological test (i.e. driving). Finally, short-term treatment would reduce the safety concerns. The concept will be to prove that low dose of methylphenidate associated with active cognitive training during 6 weeks can improve the cognitive function in healthy aged volunteers with a persistent effect at 3 months.

This study will assess the effect of active postoperative temperature management and its effect on the cognitive function in patients following coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery to determine if active postoperative temperature management to maintain normothermia reduces postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) in this population. Additionally, the investigators will explore differences in temperature control variability by using temperature management wraps combined with acetaminophen vs. acetaminophen alone in a pilot arm.

The purpose of this study is to examine safety, feasibility, and the behavioral and brain effects of a non-invasive treatment, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), for Veterans with Parkinson's disease and mild impairments in their thinking. The hypothesis is that rTMS can improve thinking for people with Parkinson's disease who are experiencing mild problems with their thinking ability.