Low-Dose Lithium to Delay Dementia?

Topics: Alzheimers | Cognitive Decline | Dementia | Lithium

Your 65-year-old patient Mr. Hoffman recently saw his father through a devastating course of Alzheimer’s disease. Mr. Hoffman had his own risk assessed with ApoE genotyping, and the result—E4/E4—indicates a high risk. He comes to your office after reading an online article about low-dose lithium for dementia prevention and asks if you can prescrib

Structural Brain Changes: How Imaging Affects Management of Late-Life Psychiatric Conditions

Topics: Alzheimers | Atrophy | CT | DaT Scan | fMRi | Frontotemporal dementia | Imaging | LATE | MRI | Parkinson’s | PET Scan | White matter hyperintensities

CGPR: When do you decide to order imaging for your older adult patients? Dr. Ajilore: I order imaging when I think there is a nonpsychiatric cause for the patient’s symptoms. This could be normal pressure hydrocephalus, vascular disease including lacunar infarcts or stroke, trauma, or (in rare cases) a brain tumor. In patients with dementia, one im

Treating Agitation in Patients with Dementia

Topics: Agitation | Alzheimers | Antipsychotics | Benzodiazepines | BPSD (behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia) | Dementia | Lewy Body Dementia | Parkinson’s Disease | Pharmacotherapy | Sundowning

CHPR: Can you tell us about yourself and your background? Dr. Metzger: I’m the medical director of psychiatry at Hebrew SeniorLife and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. My work also includes training residents and geriatric medicine fellows who rotate through our facility. CHPR: You participated in the psychopharmacol

Anticholinergic Drugs and Risk of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

Topics: Alzheimers | Anticholinergic burden scale | Anticholinergics | Benzodiazepines | Cognitive Decline | Cognitive impairment | Dementia | Healthy aging | Pharmacotherapy

CHPR: Can you tell us about your research? Dr. Gray: My research uses large databases to examine medication safety issues in older adults with the goal of optimizing healthy aging. My focus is on examining medications and risk for dementia, falls, and fractures—the types of outcomes that are not easily addressed in randomized controlled trials. CH