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Linda Clare, Professor of Clinical Psychology o f Aging and Dementia at the University of Exeter, said people with dementia have a right to cognitive rehabilitation -- and it is as relevant for them as physical rehabilitation for people with physical impairments. Writing in the journal  PLOS Medicine , Professor Clare said both share a goal to enable people to participate in everyday life, and in their families and communities, in a way that is meaningful to them. Professor Clare said: "We tend to think of rehabilitation in terms of people with physical impairment following an injury, but it is equally important in people with cognitive impairment. As a society, we now have a much greater recognition that people with physical disabilities have the right to access services and opportunities, but there it still a long way to go for people with "hidden" disabilities such as dementia, in a landscape where the numbers of people with dementia are expected to rise from...

The report notes that the current estimated annual cost to American society of just nine of the most common neurological diseases is staggering, totaling $789 billion in 2014 dollars. These conditions include Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, low back pain, stroke, traumatic brain injury, migraine, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and Parkinson's disease. Costs will increase even further over the coming years as the elderly segment of the population nearly doubles between 2011 and 2050. The costs of dementia and stroke alone are projected to total over $600 billion by 2030. The article provides an action plan for reducing this burden through infrastructure investment in neurological research and enhanced clinical management of neurological disorders. "The findings of this report are a wake-up call for the nation, as we are facing an already incredible financial burden that is going to rapidly worsen in the coming years," said lead auth...

A collaborative study between researchers from Bristol's School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, and the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company, studied the behaviour of synapses, connections that help transmit information between the brain's nerve cells, in a rodent model of human frontotemporal dementia over the course of the disease progression. Using cutting-edge microscopy techniques the team were able to image inside the brains of rodents and found that, even before the disease causes synapses and neurons start to die off, the synaptic connections already display unusual properties. In normal brains, a small percentage of the synapses are constantly added and lost as the brain learns new skills or makes new memories. However, in brains with dementia these percentages were quite different; the team found some synapses were very unstable while others were almost frozen. This imbalance in synapse stability was linked to changes in the way neurons we...

The team compiled data from four different global databases looking at studies on ADT patients and dementia and Alzheimer's. An analysis of more than 50,000 patients worldwide showed a consistent statistical link between men who underwent ADT for prostate cancer and men who developed dementia. Nead says the numbers show correlation, not causation at this point, but that there is evidence of a direct connection. "Research shows androgens play a key role in neuron maintenance and growth, so the longer you undergo this therapy to decrease androgens, the more it may impact the brain's normal functions," Nead said. The analysis was less conclusive on the question of Alzheimer's. While there was still a connection, it was not as clearly defined as the link to dementia . Nead says evidence for a link between ADT and neurocognitive dysfunction is growing and should be part of the conversation between doctors and patients. "There's enough evidence of the...

Based on this demographic trend, the American Neurological Association (ANA) commissioned a study led by former ANA marketing committee and public advocacy committee chair Clifton L. Gooch, MD, currently professor and chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of South Florida's Morsani College of Medicine in Tampa. The study, The Burden of Neurological Disease in the United States: A Summary Report and Call to Action, details the annual cost of nine key neurological diseases and disorders, including Alzheimer's disease and other dementias; low back pain; stroke; traumatic brain injury; migraine; epilepsy; multiple sclerosis; spinal cord injury; and Parkinson's disease. Neurological diseases impact an estimated 100 million Americans every year, with the costs of dementia and stroke alone projected to total more than $600 billion by 2030. A "Moonshot" for Neurology: The huge and sustained capital investments made in cardiovascular and cancer res...

History of mood disorder, such as depression, or any psychiatric disorder were associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease when psychiatric disorders that occurred at least five years before the Alzheimer's diagnosis were taken into account. However, the associations disappeared when this time window was extended to 10 years. The exponential increase in the prevalence of psychiatric disorders before the diagnosis implies that some of these psychiatric disorders might actually have been prodromal symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. This underlines the importance of proper differential diagnostics of Alzheimer's disease. Further, the findings also highlight the importance of using an appropriate time window when assessing the risk factors of neurodegenerative diseases with a long onset period. Otherwise the identified "risk factors" may actually be manifestations of the neurodegenerative disease. It should also be acknowledged that although psychiatric ...