Cognitive Decline Carlat Reports

Clinical Update

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, College Mental Health

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

Expert Q&A

Anticholinergic Drugs and Risk of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

From The Carlat Hospital Psychiatry Report, Agitation

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

Research Update 2

Does Low to Moderate Alcohol Drinking Help or Hurt Cognition?

From The Carlat Addiction Treatment Report, Alternative Treatment in Addiction

Review of: Zhang R et al, JAMA Netw Open 2020;3(6):e207922 Is alcohol good or bad for cognition? The evidence is mixed. A new study brings additional clarity to this question by including a diverse patient population and by using longitudinal cognitive measurements of the subjects as opposed to cross-sectional evaluations at one time point. In an

Clinical Update

In the News: Aducanumab (Aduhelm)

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Bipolar Disorder

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is devastating. There is no cure and existing treatments don’t slow or stop its progression. In June 2021, the FDA approved aducanumab (pronounced a-due-KAN-you-mab, brand name Aduhelm) for the treatment of AD. It’s the first new AD med since 2003 and is the only treatment that directly attacks a component of AD’s purpor

Clinical Update

Keeping Up With Trintellix

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Mood and Menopause

In a previous report (TCPR, Feb 2019), we summarized the data on cognitive effects associated with vortioxetine (Trintellix). We found that vortioxetine produced impressive results for cognition based on improvement on the Digital Symbol Substitution Test (DSST), and gave Takeda Pharmaceuticals high marks for choosing to compare vortioxetine to duloxeti

Article

The Aging Brain: Preventing Cognitive Decline

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Sleep

Topics: Cognitive Decline | Dementia | Geriatric Psychiatry

We’ve all been there. A 63-year-old patient comes to you with a chief complaint of memory loss. She tells you that she has a hard time remembering people’s names and forgets where she puts her keys. She lives and drives on her own without a problem, but asks, “Isn’t there some memory pill I can take?” What advice can we give her? The first

Article Links

Screening Tests for Cognitive Decline

From The Carlat Psychiatry Report, Sleep

Topics: Cognitive Decline | Dementia | Geriatric Psychiatry

Screening tests can also help distinguish normal aging from a Neurocognitive Disorder. The popular Mini Mental Status Exam is being replaced by more sensitive tests like the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MOCA) and the Saint Louis University Mental Status Examination (SLUMS). Both of these can be completed in 10 minutes and are normed for Mild and Major