From: judgebean23x@gmail.com   
      
   Behavior changes offer clues that dementia could be brewing    
   BY LAURAN NEERGAARD    
   JUL. 24, 2016 4:48 PM EDT    
      
        
      
   WASHINGTON (AP) — Memory loss may not always be the first warning sign that   
   dementia is brewing — changes in behavior or personality might be an early   
   clue.    
      
   Researchers on Sunday outlined a syndrome called "mild behavioral impairment"   
   that may be a harbinger of Alzheimer's or other dementias, and proposed a   
   checklist of symptoms to alert doctors and families.    
      
   Losing interest in favorite activities? Getting unusually anxious, aggressive   
   or suspicious? Suddenly making crude comments in public?    
      
   "Historically those symptoms have been written off as a psychiatric issue, or   
   as just part of aging," said Dr. Zahinoor Ismail of the University of Calgary,   
   who presented the checklist at the Alzheimer's Association International   
   Conference in Toronto.    
      
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   Now, "when it comes to early detection, memory symptoms don't have the corner   
   on the market anymore," he said.    
      
   Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia, affects more than 5 million   
   people in the U.S., a number growing as the population ages. It gradually   
   strips people of their memory and the ability to think and reason.    
      
   But it creeps up, quietly ravaging the brain a decade or two before the first   
   symptoms become noticeable. Early memory problems called "mild cognitive   
   impairment," or MCI, can raise the risk of later developing dementia, and   
   worsening memory often is the    
   trigger for potential patients or their loved ones to seek medical help.    
      
   It's not uncommon for people with dementia to experience neuropsychiatric   
   symptoms, too — problems such as depression or "sundowning," agitation that   
   occurs at the end of the day — as the degeneration spreads into brain   
   regions responsible for more    
   than memory. And previous studies have found that people with mild cognitive   
   impairment are at greater risk of decline if they also suffer more subtle   
   behavioral symptoms.    
      
   What's new: The concept of pre-dementia "mild behavioral impairment," or MBI,   
   a term that describes specific changes in someone's prior behavior that might   
   signal degeneration is starting in brain regions not as crucial for memory, he   
   said.    
      
   Ismail is part of an Alzheimer's Association committee tapped to draft a   
   checklist of the symptoms that qualify — new problems that linger at least   
   six months, not temporary symptoms or ones explained by a clear mental health   
   diagnosis or other issues    
   such as bereavement, he stressed. They include apathy, anxiety about once   
   routine events, loss of impulse control, flaunting social norms, loss of   
   interest in food. He even cites extreme cases, like a 68-year-old who started   
   using cocaine before anyone    
   noticed her memory trouble.    
      
   If validated, the checklist could help doctors better identify people at risk   
   of brewing Alzheimer's and study changes over time.    
      
   "It's important for us to recognize that not everything's forgetfulness," said   
   Dr. Ron Petersen, the Mayo Clinic's Alzheimer's research chief. He wasn't   
   involved in developing the behavior checklist but said it could raise   
   awareness of the    
   neuropsychiatric link with dementia.    
      
   Technology specialist Mike Belleville of Douglas, Massachusetts, thought   
   stress was to blame when he found himself getting easily frustrated and angry.   
   Normally patient, he began snapping at co-workers and rolling down his window   
   to yell at other drivers,   
    "things I'd never done before," Belleville said.    
      
   The final red flag was a heated argument with his wife, Cheryl, who found   
   herself wondering, "Who is this person?" When Mike Belleville didn't remember   
   the strong words the next morning, the two headed straight for a doctor.   
   Physicians tested for    
   depression and a list of other suspects. Eventually Belleville, now 55, was   
   diagnosed with an early-onset form of dementia — and with medication no   
   longer gets angry so easily, allowing him to volunteer his computer expertise.    
      
   "If you see changes, don't take it lightly and assume it's stress," Cheryl   
   Belleville advised.    
      
   Also at Sunday's meeting:    
      
   â€” Complex jobs that require working with people may help the brain build   
   resilience against dementia, what's called "cognitive reserve," University of   
   Wisconsin researchers reported.    
      
   The team tested 284 adults in late middle-age whose brain scans showed changes   
   that have been linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer's. Comparing their   
   cognitive ability and their careers, the researchers found those who worked   
   primarily with people,    
   rather than objects or data, functioned better even if brain scans showed more   
   of that quiet damage.    
      
   â€” Preliminary results from a study of "brain training" suggested one type   
   might help delay cognitive impairment.    
      
   Researchers examined records from 2,785 older adults who'd participated in a   
   previous trial that compared three cognitive training strategies — to   
   improve memory, reasoning or reaction times —with no intervention. A decade   
   later, that reaction-time    
   training suggested benefit: 12 percent of people who'd completed up to 10   
   hours had evidence of cognitive decline or dementia compared with 14 percent   
   in the control group, said Dr. Jerri Edwards of the University of South   
   Florida. The figure was lower †  
   ” 8 percent — for people who got some extra booster training.    
      
   "It's the first hint for a cognitive training intervention like this," but   
   more research is needed, said Dr. Jonathan King of the National Institute on   
   Aging, who wasn't involved in the new study.    
      
   ___    
      
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   http://bigstory.ap.org/article/7e620da826ee4b1d9fe40b38316466ef/   
   ehavior-changes-offer-clues-dementia-could-be-brewing    
      
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