CHeBA Funding Success to Transform Preventable Dementia Research miragenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from miragenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Western Diet Linked to Increased Depression in Over 45s
Researchers at UNSW Sydney’s Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) have revealed new insight into the connection between nutrition and depression in adults aged 45 years and older.
The review, published in Ageing Research Reviews, indicates a beneficial relationship between higher intakes of vegetables and fruits and lower incidence of depression, with a higher risk of depression for those that consumed a predominantly western diet or foods that increase inflammation in the body, such as refined carbohydrates, fried foods and red meat.
Depression currently affects 264 million people globally and is the third leading burden of disease. When compared with younger adults, depression in older adults is linked to poorer physical and cognitive performance- and ultimately may impact on a person’s ability to live independently.
Using Quantum Dots to Diagnose and Treat Alzheimer s Disease miragenews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from miragenews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Funding Success to Identify Early Stages of Dementia
Senior Research Fellow Dr Simone Reppermund and colleagues from UNSW Sydney’s Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) have been awarded close to $1.3 million to develop an online tool designed to assist in the identification of early stages of dementia.
The funding, awarded by the NHMRC Medical Research Future Fund, will allow for the development, validation and implementation of a new, computerised diagnostic tool to assess instrumental activities of daily living in older people with cognitive impairment.
Instrumental activities of daily living are complex everyday activities necessary to live independently such as shopping or managing medications and finances.
Specialist Dementia Care for Severe Behaviours
A research collaboration between the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), UNSW Sydney and The Dementia Centre, HammondCare, has retrospectively reviewed the effectiveness of Special Dementia Care Programmes, for people with very severe behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia.
Behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) – which include hallucinations, anxiety, agitation, aggression, apathy and depression – occur in up to 90% of people living with dementia. These symptoms occur with greater frequency as the disease progresses.
It is estimated that less than 10% of Australians living with dementia will demonstrate aggressive behaviours that are deemed unmanageable in mainstream care, and only 1% will manifest very severe symptoms, indicating the necessity for specialist programmes to stabilise and reduce symptoms over time to enable transition back to a less intensive care setting.