FDA Facilitates Research on Earlier Stages of Alzheimer's Disease

Research has shown that there is a lag of many years between the beginning of changes in a patient’s brain and the onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms.

Alzheimer’s disease is a nightmare haunting many Americans.

Despite years of intensive efforts by scientists to develop new safe and effective treatments for Alzheimer’s, options remain limited. In the last 20 years, FDA has approved five drugs for the disease—the most recent one in 2003. Although the drugs can provide some benefit, more needs to be done.

Memory Tests

Innovators Set the Pace in the Race for Faster Cures

A new model for developing cures is winning battles in the war against disease in laboratories, clinics and research centers around the world.

The hallmarks of this movement are collaboration and the sharing of intellectual property in a wide-open manner that cuts against the grain of traditional for-profit drug discovery...

Alzheimer's Front Row

Alzheimer's A Sudden Flash of Genius?

By Bob DeMarco Alzheimer's Front Row

Like everyone in the Alzheimer's community, I believe we need more funding for Alzheimer's research. We need to investigate all legitimate hypotheses. We need to do it now.....

By Bob DeMarco
Alzheimer's Reading Room

Most invention and breakthroughs in science are accompanied by what is later described as "a sudden flash of genius." I have always imagined that this is what will happen when an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease is discovered.

Does the Combination of Aricept and Namenda Help Slow the Rate of Decline in Alzheimer's Patients

My name is Bob DeMarco, I am an Alzheimer's caregiver. My mother Dorothy, now 93 years old, suffers from Alzheimer's disease.

A year ago, my mother's Alzheimer's disease started to worsen. As a result, I was both concerned and worried.

At the same time, I read a new research study about the combination of Aricept and Namenda as a treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

"The results of this study should change the way we treat patients with Alzheimer's disease. Cholinesterase inhibitors are approved for use in mild to moderate dementia, while memantine has been approved for advanced dementia. But it looks like there is an advantage in prescribing both drugs as initial treatment."--John Growdon, MD

The results of the research study indicated that the combination of Aricept and Namenda helped slow the rate of decline in Alzheimer's patients.

I immediately scheduled an appointment with our doctor to discuss this information.

Our doctor was familiar with the research, and he agree to put my mother on Namenda in a combination with Aricept.

One year later, it is my belief that the combination Aricept and Namenda has slowed the progression of Alzheimer's. We were fortunate, and my mother did not suffer any side effects as the result of the addition of Namenda in her drug regimen.

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Test Your Memory for Alzheimer's or Dementia in Five Minutes (TYM)

A new cognitive test for detecting Alzheimer's disease is quicker and more accurate than many current tests, and could help diagnose early Alzheimer's, dementia, or mild cognitive impairment.

Researchers at the Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, England have developed a new test for Alzheimer's and dementia. Test Your Memory (TYM) is a short, on paper, test that can detect Alzheimer's disease at an early stage. The quiz takes about 5 minutes to administer.

The TYM is comprised of ten simple tasks including: the ability to copy a sentence, how items relate to each other, simple math, and the ability to recall.

In a clinical trial involving 679 people, the TYM detected 93 percent of people with Alzheimer's.

This compares with 52 percent for the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE). The MMSE is the test that doctors have been using for decades to detect mild cognitive impairment, dementia and Alzheimer's.

I will be updating this article several times, so check back. I also intend to try and talk to one of the researchers in England. For the time being, you can read more about the research below.

Go here for the Test Your Memory test.

Go here for the TYM Scoring Sheet.

Go here for the Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE)

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Addenbrooke’s researchers develop Alzheimer’s test

A new cognitive test for detecting Alzheimer's disease is quicker and more accurate than many current tests, and could help diagnose early dementia, concludes a study published on bmj.com today.

An estimated 24 million people throughout the world have dementia and the number affected will double every 20 years. Early diagnosis is crucial to effective treatment, but there is no available short cognitive test that is quick to use, examines various skills, and is sensitive to Alzheimer's disease.

So researchers at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge designed and evaluated a new cognitive test, the TYM ("test your memory"), in the detection of Alzheimer's disease.

The TYM is a series of 10 tasks including ability to copy a sentence, semantic knowledge, calculation, verbal fluency and recall ability. The ability to do the test is also scored. Each task carries a score with a maximum score of 50 points available. The test is designed to use minimal operator time and to be suitable for non-specialist use.

The test was completed by 540 healthy individuals (controls) aged 18 to 95 years of age with no history of neurological disease, memory problems or brain injury. A further 139 patients with diagnosed Alzheimer's or mild cognitive impairment were also tested.

The test was compared with two commonly used bedside cognitive tests – the mini-mental state examination and the Addenbrooke's cognitive examination.

The mini-mental state examination has been the standard short cognitive test for 30 years and is the main test chosen by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) for deciding which patients should receive drugs and for monitoring their response to treatment.

Controls completed the test in an average time of five minutes and gained an average score of 47 out of 50. Patients with Alzheimer's disease performed much poorer than controls with an average score of 33 out of 50. Patients with mild cognitive impairment scored an average of 45 out of 50.

The average TYM score remained constant between the ages of 18 and 70 years, with a small decline in performance after this age. Scores did not differ between men and women or by geographical background, suggesting that education and social class would have only mild effects on the TYM score.

The TYM detected 93% of patients with Alzheimer's disease, while the mini-mental state examination detected only 52% of patients, suggesting that the TYM test is a much more sensitive tool for detecting mild Alzheimer's disease. Compared to the mini-mental state examination, the TYM also takes less time to administer and tests a wider range of cognitive domains.

The Addenbrooke's cognitive examination tests a similar number of cognitive domains to the TYM and is sensitive to mild Alzheimer's disease, but it takes 20 minutes to administer and score.

The TYM is a powerful and valid screening test for the detection of Alzheimer's disease, conclude the authors.

The usefulness of screening tests varies according to the clinical setting, says consultant physician Claire Nicholl in an accompanying editorial.

If the test your memory test is to be adopted more widely it must be validated in a range of settings and different populations, she writes. Until then, the most important message is that clinicians should identify a test that suits their clinical setting, and develop experience in its use to improve the identification of patients with early dementia.

>Source: BMJ-British Medical Journal

Bob DeMarco is an Alzheimer's caregiver and editor of the Alzheimer's Reading Room. The Alzheimer's Reading Room is the number one website on the Internet for insight into Alzheimer's disease. Bob taught at the University of Georgia, was an executive at Bear Stearns, the CEO of IP Group, and is a mentor. He has written more than 600 articles with more than 11,000 links on the Internet. Bob resides in Delray Beach, FL.

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