Active clinical trials for "Dementia"

This clinical study is designed to test the feasibility of a new intervention, CAPABLE Transitions. CAPABLE Transitions is based on the Community Aging in Place, Advancing Better Living for Elders (CAPABLE) intervention designed by Dr. Sarah Szanton at Johns Hopkins University. Similar to CAPABLE, CAPABLE Transitions consists of an occupational therapy (OT)-led intervention in which the study OT, nurse, and handyman deliver an in-home intervention over 3-4 months. This intervention is designed to help with the transition of care from a hospital or post-acute care facility discharge as well as to optimize functioning and home safety. This clinical study plans to recruit a total of 60 older adults with and without dementia admitted to a home health agency following discharge from a hospital or post-acute care facility. Given that this is a feasibility study, it is not designed or powered to test hypotheses.

Persons with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) account for 3.2 million hospital admissions per year and have over three times more hospitalizations than those without cognitive impairment, yet hospital caregivers (HCGs) are ill-prepared to manage patients with ADRD with less than 5% reporting mandatory dementia care training. Three-quarters of hospitalized persons with ADRD display Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) associated with functional and cognitive decline, increased resource consumption, institutionalization, premature death, and caregiver burden. The overall objective is to test the preliminary efficacy of an innovative model of care, PES-4-BPSD, for reducing BPSD by empowering Patient Engagement Specialists (PES) to deliver dementia care for acutely-ill patients with ADRD. Traditionally, mental health assistants with training in crisis-prevention techniques provide care to psychiatric patients. On the intervention unit, these mental health assistants, as PES, purposefully engage patients with BPSD. In the pilot study, investigators found patients with cognitive impairment admitted to the PES unit were significantly less likely to require constant observation, chemical and physical restraints, suggesting improved management of BPSD. The central hypothesis is that PES-4-BPSD will improve the ability of PES to create an "enabling" milieu that addresses factors leading to BPSD and improves the experience of hospital caregivers. Guided by a social-ecological framework, PES-4-BPSD incorporates dementia education and training, environmental modifications-cohorting, increased staffing-PES, and staff support. The investigators' multidisciplinary research team is well-positioned to accomplish the following: Aim 1) Determine the preliminary efficacy of PES-4-BPSD for reducing BPSD during hospitalization, and Aim 2) Evaluate whether dementia care training improves the perceived ability of PES staff (intervention) and nurse assistant staff (control) to care for hospitalized persons with ADRD. For Aim 1, investigators will conduct a non-randomized preliminary efficacy trial of the PES-4-BPSD intervention enrolling N=158 patients (79 control, 79 intervention). The primary outcome will be presence of BPSD during hospitalization using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Questionnaire (NPI-Q). In Aim 2, investigators will use survey methodology in a repeated measures design to evaluate within and between-group differences in attitudes, experience, and satisfaction toward managing patients with ADRD. Measures will be completed at baseline (T1), immediately following training (T2), and at the end of the intervention period (T3). This proposal will be the first to study an innovative model of care utilizing PES as specialized hospital caregivers for reducing BPSD in the hospital setting. The investigators' findings will lay the essential groundwork for a multi-site trial of PES-4-BPSD and inform the development of a program that can be easily implemented in other hospitals.

With the aging population, the prevalence of dementia is increasing dramatically. People living with dementia are highly dependent on family care partners, who may have little knowledge of the disorder. National and provincial guidelines have all highlighted the importance of online resources to improve care partner education; however, very few have been widely implemented or rigorously studied. The investigators have developed the award-winning dementia education platform to complement traditional patient and family educational approaches. It allows free access to multimedia e-learning lessons, live expert webinars, and email-based content that care partners can access any time, anywhere. In a pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT), the investigators propose to study 1) the feasibility and care partner acceptance of the intervention and some of the study methods, and 2) the impact of the intervention on care partner self-efficacy, knowledge, and sense of burden. This initiative has the potential to improve the quality, cost effectiveness, and efficiency of dementia care. The intervention could be easily scaled and spread both provincially and nationally to complement other dementia education methods, at a time when the prevalence of dementia is increasing and access to high quality internet-based interventions is essential.

Latino families with dementia experience substantial disparities in access to caregiver support compared to their non-Latino white peers, putting them at an increased risk for negative emotional, physical and financial outcomes. This R21 will address this research gap by 1) Developing a culturally and linguistically appropriate text message intervention for caregiver support among Latino family caregivers of individuals with dementia and 2) Testing the feasibility and acceptability of CuidaTXT, a multicomponent text message caregiver support intervention culturally and linguistically tailored for the Latino community.

This study aimed to conduct a randomized controlled trial to examine the effectiveness of ROMA therapy( Reminiscence, Reality Orientation, Music, and Art) on improving cognitive function, behavioral and psychological symptoms in population with dementia. The hypotheis of this study is that these patients with dementia receiving ROMA therapy featuring reminiscence, reality orientation, music, and art would improve their cognition, depressive symptoms, and behavioral symptoms.

This project aims to examine the feasibility of implementing Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) under real world circumstances in a more heterogenous population, with the ultimate goal of making the treatment broadly accessible. The effects of CST on the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) as a non-pharmacologic intervention will also be studied.

This study is assesses the feasibility and acceptability of telephone-delivered mindfulness training designed to alleviate caregiver burden for African-American rural caregivers of individuals with moderate to severe dementia, as defined by the caregiver. The study utilizes a single-group, uncontrolled design to test the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention for the target population.

Elderly Hispanics have a higher burden of dementia compared to Non-Hispanic Whites. Furthermore, Hispanic caregivers tend to have a higher burden of care for their relatives with dementia. The objective of this project is to conduct a randomized trial in 160 Hispanic relative caregivers of persons with dementia comparing the effectiveness of New York University Caregiver Intervention to a case management intervention lead by community health workers(CHW). This trial will last 6 months. The main outcomes in the trial will be changes in depressive symptoms measured with the Geriatric Depression Scale and caregiver burden measured with the Zarit Caregiver Burden Scale. This research project will be conducted by the Northern Manhattan Center of Excellence in Comparative Effectiveness Research for Eliminating Disparities (NOCERED) funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities.

The general aim of this research project is to determine the relationships between alterations of central cholinergic (ACh) and dopaminergic (DA) systems and neurobehavioral features of dementias with Lewy bodies (DLB). Both clinical and neurochemical data support the view that DLB is not a homogeneous entity and it can be hypothesized that differential alterations of central ACh systems (i.e. anterior vs posterior vs striatal interneurons) in association or not with a DA nigrostriatal dysfunction could partly support the clinical heterogeneity observed in this disease. ACh in vivo imaging has been relatively underutilized to date and to our knowledge only on the postsynaptic side. Furthermore, ACh/DA interactions and their relationships with the symptomatology of DLB and related pathologies (PDD) had never been investigated.

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Nordic Sensi® Chair (NSC) in the management of behavioral symptoms of dementia (BPSD) in real clinical practice in people with dementia admitted to nursing homes. The secondary objective of the present study is to assess its benefits on the performance of the daily work activities of care staff. Although over time the BPSD have been treated predominantly with pharmacological measures, there is now sufficient scientific evidence to support the use of non-pharmacological therapies (NPT) for their management.Within this context, only a few studies have evaluated the use of rocking chairs for people with dementia. Modern rocking chairs may be suitable for long-term care because rocking, a rhythmically repeated movement, can contribute to psychosocial wellbeing . In this regard, it is a focus of attention to consider the therapeutic role of the Nordic Sensi® Chair in the treatment of BPSD based on its ability to offer patients a sensory experience that brings the benefits of music therapy, therapeutic tactile stimulation, vestibular stimulation, and relaxation in an integrated way, especially those in nursing homes. The NSC is an electrically operated rocking chair with built-in MusiCure music. It is equipped with an integrated audio system with music recording. The NSC has three different programs: Relax for deep relaxation, Refresh for recovery and Comfort for gentle relaxation. In addition to musical programming, the NSC provides predefined tactile stimulation and rocking motion, for a relaxing multi-sensory experience. In this study, the 20 minutes NSC deep relaxation program (Relax Program) will be used. Participants are randomly assigned to two groups of equal size: a treatment group that receives three times a week one session per day of 20 minutes in the Relax for deep relaxation program of the NSC and a control group that does not participate in the activity mentioned for the treatment group, but receives, at the same time and duration, the care and activities that are part of the daily routines. Although cognitive and functional symptoms have been the hallmarks of dementia, in recent years behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) have become increasingly important. In all cases, BPSD is always one of the most important challenges that both the patient and their caregivers will face throughout the course of the disease.