User-Led Meaningful Activity and Early-Stage Dementia
DementiaNeuropsychiatric symptoms are the most difficult, distressing, and burdensome aspects of dementia care and a catalyst for long-term care placement. Intervention studies have largely focused on helping caregivers manage these symptoms. However, little has been done with regard to persons at the earliest stages of dementia, nor have persons with dementia played a direct and active, central role in helping to design intervention studies. This study focuses on building, pilot testing, and evaluating a tailored activity plan developed with persons with early-stage dementia. The goal of the intervention is to provide persons at this early stage meaningful activities and a plan for adaptation with disease progression.
Yoga for Caregivers and Persons With Dementia
DementiaThe purpose of this research is to determine the feasibility and acceptability of yoga classes for persons living with dementia (PLWD) and their care partners. A secondary aim of this study is to examine the impact of yoga on caregiver burden.
Faith-Based Toolbox for African Americans With Dementia
Alzheimer DiseaseDementiaThe purpose of this study is to create and test faith-based activities that might be useful for African American adults with moderate and severe dementia and their caregivers. A total of 60 people will take part in the intervention; 30 people with moderate and severe dementia and 30 family caregivers.
A Technology-Driven Intervention to Improve Early Detection and Management of Cognitive Impairment...
DementiaCognitive ImpairmentMost experts advocate for early detection of cognitive impairment (CI) so that patients and caregivers can be prepared for making difficult decisions and to improve quality of life, but studies show that screening alone isn't sufficient to change clinician actions related to early detection. Using predictive modelling developed with machine learning methods and sophisticated clinical decision support (CDS) tools, it is possible to identify patients at elevated risk for CI and make it much easier for primary care to engage and support patients and caregivers in meaningful care planning. The goal of this study is to implement and evaluate a low-cost, highly scalable CI-CDS system integrated within the electronic health record that has high potential to improve early CI detection and care and translate massive public and private sector investments in health informatics into tangible health benefits for large numbers of people.
Pilot Testing Decision Making in Aging and Dementia for Autonomy Program in Nursing Homes
DementiaStaff Attitude2 moreThe purpose of this study is to adapt, pilot test, and evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of DIGNITY (Decision-making In aGing and demeNtIa for auTonomY) for Preference-Based Care in Nursing Homes as a new evidence-based intervention to support nursing home staff to safely honor care and activity preferences of residents' living with dementia in rural, typically under resourced nursing home communities.
Emergency Preparedness for Caregivers of Persons With Dementia: Disaster PrepWise
Caregiver Resilience and StressIndividuals with dementia and their families are especially vulnerable during a disaster as it limits caregivers' ability to continue with care due to disaster related stress and reduced access to resources and support. The COVID-19 pandemic showed the extreme vulnerability of persons with dementia (PWD) and their caregivers as they struggled to access support and resources due to the threat of COVID-19 infection; such impact was exacerbated in rural areas where caregivers are geographically isolated and disaster management resources are scarce. With the number of federally declared disasters increasing dramatically over the past 50 years, active public health efforts are needed to support caregivers in developing emergency caregiving plans usable in disasters such as pandemics and extreme weather emergencies. The long-term goal of this project is to enhance emergency preparedness and support networks of caregivers of PWD to increase their resilience and minimize distress by implementing an intervention program, Disaster PrepWise (DPW). In the DPW program, a trained Medical Reserve Corp (MRC) volunteer will provide step-by-step guidance to caregivers to jointly develop emergency preparedness plans and personal support networks. The objectives of this proposed study are to 1) test the impact of DPW on caregiver outcomes (i.e., resilience, stress) and perceptions that may mediate the association between DPW and outcomes (caregiver self-efficacy, preparedness, social support); and 2) evaluate implementation strategies in a real-world setting to optimize future dissemination. We will conduct a randomized control trial of 200 caregivers of persons with dementia involving two arms: DPW intervention group and an information-only control group (print information on disaster preparedness). Assessments will occur before randomization (baseline), and 3 and 6 months after the baseline. This study is innovative in its use of a highly personalized disaster preparedness program with built-in assistance to support caregivers; the support will be provided through an existing national-level public health infrastructure (MRC) that has a great potential to reach older adults and caregivers in rural areas. The knowledge and data obtained through this study will lay the foundation for a future larger-scale multi-state pragmatic trial to assess dissemination potentials.
Supporting Caregivers of PWD and Identifying an Effective Intervention to Reduce Their Depressive...
DementiaEffective clinical management of chronic conditions like depressive symptoms of caregivers actually requires a sequence of interventions, each adapts to responses to prior interventions, and hence multiple intervention decisions throughout the whole careers of dementia caregivers. The main objective of this study is to build the capacity in the community to support the family caregivers of PWD and identify a 2-stage adaptive intervention involving behavioral activation and mindfulness practice to reduce their depressive symptoms using SMART design. A random sample of 272 family caregivers of PWD who meet the clinical criteria of subthreshold depression will be recruited. Participants will be assessed at T1 (baseline assessment); T2 (immediately after the first stage intervention); T3 (immediately after the 2nd stage intervention); T4 (3 months after the 2nd stage intervention); T5 (6 months after the 2nd stage intervention) with various health-related outcomes. The findings will inform us whether the SMART is efficient in identifying an effective adaptive intervention for reducing depressive symptoms. More importantly, will also show us how to alleviate the negative impact of caregiving in the family caregivers.
RCT of Brain Longitudinal Biomarker Study (OPT-Neuro RCT)
DepressionDementia6 moreThe purpose of this study is to assess which antidepressants work the best in older adults who have treatment-resistant depression (TRD), and to test whether treatment-resistant late life depression is associated with declines in memory and attention and brain structure and function.
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Dementia
DementiaMild Cognitive ImpairmentThe purpose is to is to study if repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) improves cognitive function in patients with neurodegenerative conditions which may manifest as mild to moderate cognitive impairment and, in late phase, dementia. This study also intends to investigate if the responses to rTMS intervention are either positively or negatively correlated with the initial severity of cognitive impairment.
A Phase 2 Study to Evaluate Safety of Long-term AL001 Dosing in Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) Patients...
Frontotemporal DementiaA Phase 2 open label study evaluating the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) of AL001 in participants with a Granulin mutation or C9orf72 mutation causative of frontotemporal dementia.