 clipped from www.medicalnewstoday.comA new US study suggests that brain health is improving among older Americans as demonstrated by a decline in thinking and memory problems in this group. The
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Memory And Thinking Problems Decline Among Older Americans
Mild Alzheimer's Patients Show Rapid Decline In Financial Skills Over One Year
I was late in discovering my mother was suffering from Alzheimer's dementia. After my father passed away my mother took over the the bill paying. She did this without a problem for over ten years. I finally discovered that there were all kinds of problems. Looking back I realized that this is one of the early signs of dementia. My advice to all is to allow the elderly to pay their own bills and to monitor these payments. If the pattern changes this could be an early tip-off that things are changing and that you need to rule out or rule in the onset of Alzheimer's disease. This is one of the early signs of Alzheimer's and dementia.Mild Alzheimer's Patients Show Rapid Decline In Financial Skills Over One Year
New research from UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) shows that patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) have a dramatic decline in their ability to make financial decisions over a one year period. The findings, published Feb. 8 online in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, have strong implications for caregivers and health care providers in the areas of estate planning and fraud prevention.
The UAB team compared 55 patients with mild AD against 63 healthy older adults and followed them for one year. At the beginning of the trial, the mild AD group already showed a 20 percent decline in overall financial ability compared to the control group. By the end of the year, the AD group had dropped another 10 percent.
"After just one year, the mild AD group had dropped to 70 percent of the financial capacity demonstrated by the healthy older adult group, a significant decline," said Daniel Marson, J.D., Ph.D., director of the UAB Alzheimer's Disease Center in the Department of Neurology and the study's lead author.
Patients were assessed on a variety of financial skills, including basic monetary skills, checkbook management, bill payment and understanding a bank statement. Tasks varied from simple ones such as identifying specific coins and currency to complex ones such as preparing bills, checks and envelopes for mailing.
Assessments were done using the Financial Capacity Instrument, (FCI-9), an instrument developed by Marson's group. The FCI-9 measures 18 different financial tasks within nine domains and has two overall scores.
The AD group showed substantial declines in overall financial capacity, on eight of the nine financial domains and on 12 of the 18 financial tasks. Of particular concern was decline in the ability to recognize telephone or mail fraud.
"Elder fraud is a serious problem and our findings suggest that even patients with mild Alzheimer's are at significantly increased risk for becoming victims of fraud," said Marson.
Overall the study found that impairment in financial skills occurs early in AD and progresses relatively rapidly over time, and includes declines in basic judgment and monetary calculation skills. The findings underscore the importance, at the time of diagnosis, of patients with mild AD and their families promptly pursuing financial planning and transfer of financial responsibilities, Marson said.
Proactive steps by families include finalizing trust and estate arrangements, delegating financial decision-making powers, planning for eventual financial incapacity, and providing increased supervision of existing financial activities.
This research was supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
University of Alabama at Birmingham
701 20th St. S., AB 1320
Birmingham, AL 35294-0113
United States
http://www.uab.edu
Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/96795.php
Will deep brain stimulation make Alzheimer's a memory?
Could deep brain stimulation be the answer for those suffering from alzheimer's?
Discovery could make Alzheimer's a memory
By Laura Clout
Scientists have accidentally discovered a key to unlocking memory, which could offer hope to thousands of Alzheimer's sufferers.
Surgeons made the discovery when using a technique called deep-brain stimulation, which involves stimulating parts of the brain with an electric current, while trying to suppress an obese man's appetite.
But to their surprise, the patient was suddenly able to recall in immense detail a moment spent in a park with friends 30 years before. His ability to learn also improved significantly after the electrodes were turned on.
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Scientists are now trialling the treatment in Alzheimer's sufferers and say initial results from three patients are promising. The technique, which is already used to treat Parkinson's patients, could provide a "pacemaker" in the brains of those with the degenerative condition, they say.
Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia and affects around 417,000 people in Britain.
Andres Lozano, a professor of neurosurgery at the Toronto Western Hospital, Ontario, who is leading the research, said the discovery caught him and his team completely by surprise.
He told The Independent: "This is the first time that anyone has had electrodes implanted in the brain which have been shown to improve memory.
"We are driving the activity of the brain by increasing its sensitivity - turning up the volume of the memory circuits. Any event that involves the memory circuits is more likely to be stored and retained."
Professor Lozano said the obese man, who weighed 190kg (30st), had turned to brain surgery as a last resort to control his eating.
It was while researchers were trying to identify the parts of his brain responsible for hunger, in the hope of curbing his appetite, that the man began to experience an intense experience of deja vu.
As a current was passed into his hypothalamus - a part of the brain just above the brain stem, the man began a describing a scene from a park years earlier, in which he recognised his girlfriend at the time and remembered what his friends were wearing.
The unidentified man was also tested on his ability to learn lists of paired objects. After three weeks of regular brain stimulation, his performance dramatically improved, most of all when the electrodes were turned on.
Prof Lozano said: "It gives us a means of intervening in the way we have already done in Parkinson's and for mood disorders such as depression, and it may have a therapeutic benefit in people with memory problems."
The technique involves surgically implanting electrodes into particular parts of the brain. These are attached to a battery pack stitched under the skin of the chest which delivers a constant current to stimulate the brain at a level which is imperceptible to the patient.
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