Josephine Neale reports on a recent cohort study that finds less than half of UK prescriptions for antipsychotics are issued for main licensed conditions (e.g. psychosis or bipolar disorder). The research provides a reminder about the dangers of prescribing antipsychotics to people with dementia.
[read the full story...]
Social care super-blogger Ermintrude considers a study about dementia carers’ experience of the health and social care system and reflects on what it means for current dementia policy.
[read the full story...]
In her first blog for the Social Care Elf, Caroline Struthers looks at research on cognitive impairment and shared decision making for people with dementia and offers useful tips on understanding research reviews. She also shares some of her own personal experience of the research topic and reminds us about reliable evidence having real-life applications.
[read the full story...]
In her latest blog, Clarissa Giebel examines research into the effectiveness of the ‘Strategies for Relatives’ psychological and educational training programme for family carers of people with dementia and explores what the findings might mean for wider programme implementation.
[read the full story...]
Should all molecular research institutes looking at neurodegenerative diseases be replaced by parks, playgrounds and cycle paths? Mark Horowitz highlights a recent systematic review of modifiable risk factors associated with cognition and dementia, which suggests that from a public health perspective, there may be some sense in this idea.
[read the full story...]
Clarissa Giebel, Researcher and PhD student at the University of Manchester, writes her debut Elf blog on a qualitative study about the experiences of advance care planning amongst family caregivers of people with advanced dementia.
[read the full story...]
We are grateful to Josephine Neale who has read the 104 page World Alzheimer Report 2014 and summarised it for us in this very readable blog. The report is a comprehensive analysis of the risk factors for dementia, which focuses on a range of protective and modifiable factors.
[read the full story...]
As people with learning disabilities are living longer, then they are also experiencing age related disorders such as dementia, where they have been shown to have a higher risk than the general population. Here we look at a review of the current state of knowledge which looks at a range of issues, from prevalence, assessment, treatment and future directions for research.
[read the full story...]
Caroline Struthers appraises a recent US cross-sectional study of the use of medications of “questionable benefit” in nursing home residents with advanced dementia. She concludes that all medications are of questionable value if they have side effects which might have a negative impact on quality of life or are likely to cause harm.
[read the full story...]
Laurence Palfreyman highlights a recent BMJ study, which finds an association between Alzheimer’s disease and benzodiazepine use.
[read the full story...]
