The Dartmouth Atlas of Medicare Prescription Drug Use

Optimal use of prescription medications depends upon a clear understanding of how drugs are currently used and how they could be used more effectively.

Dementia Knowledge

The goal of the Alzheimer's Reading Room is to Educate and Empower Alzheimer's caregivers their families, and the entire Alzheimer's community.

Analysis of Health Care in U.S. Indicates That Improvement in Outcomes Has Slowed

An examination of health care in the U.S. finds that despite the extraordinary economic success of many of its participants, the health care system has performed relatively poorly 

by some measures;  and that outcomes have improved, but more slowly than in the past and more slowly than in comparable countries, according to an article in the November 13 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on critical issues in U.S. health care.

Is It Dementia or Normal Aging? How to Tell the Difference

How can you tell the difference between normal age-related memory problems and early dementia?

Dementia Care, Good Cop, Bad Cop

If you are a bad Dementia cop, you are probably upset all the time by the behavior of your Alzheimer's patient. If you are a good Dementia cop, you probably learned that your Alzheimer's patient is not guilty of a crime.

By Bob DeMarco
+Alzheimer's Reading Room 

It is pretty easy to blame Alzheimer's patients for everything they do. It is not unusual for caregivers to tell me that their loved one is mean or a real challenge to manage. Most often when I ask, have you given any serious thought to why they are mean or hard to deal with they answer no.

Dementia - free memory quiz

The research from this memory test, Self-Administered Geocognitive Examination (SAGE), shows that four out of five people (80 percent) with memory issues will be detected by this test.

Dementia Quote of the Day

from

Are Alzheimer's Patients Lovable, or Empty Shells of Themselves?

+Bob DeMarco -- +Alzheimer's Reading Room

Ask - List All Common Types of Dementia

Dementia is a an illness that usually occurs slowly over time, and usually includes a progressive state of deterioration.

Yahoo Search - does anthesthesia cause dementia

Does anesthesia increase the odds of developing dementia later in life?

"Music Therapy" and Dementia

"As a family, we didn't know what to do when our father was diagnosed with this Alzheimer's disease. We have been through so many stages and now he seems to just be deteriorating to nothing. However, the music seems to have brought back some of his brain to him!"

By Nicholas Simmons-Stern

Dementia Quote of the Day - The Abandoned

Like it or not, if you are a family member or friend of an Alzheimer's caregiver and you are not helping them -- you have abandoned them.

Read

Are Alzheimer's Caregivers the Forgotten?

+Bob DeMarco -- +Alzheimer's Reading Room

Sudden Tears or Laughter

Pseudobulbar affect (PBA), emotional lability, labile affect or emotional incontinence refers to a neurologic disorder characterized by involuntary crying or uncontrollable episodes of crying and/or laughing, or other emotional displays.

People Living with Dementia

Dementia affects memory, thinking, language, judgment, behavior, and a person’s ability to perform normal daily activities. 

Dementia Patients More Likely to Suffer from Incontinence

Patients with a diagnosis of dementia have approximately three times the rate of diagnosis of urinary incontinence, and more than four times the rate of fecal incontinence, compared to those without a diagnosis of dementia.

Read the Complete Article

Dementia Patients More Likely to Suffer from Urinary or Fecal Incontinence

+Bob DeMarco +Alzheimer's Reading Room

http://www.dementiareadingroom.com/2013/10/dementia-patients-more-likely-to-suffer.html

The Deeply Forgetful Often Say No

Many dementia caregivers accept the word "No" from the deeply forgetful. Then, they turn around and complain and vent about how their loved one always says "NO".

By +Bob DeMarco 
+Alzheimer's Reading Room 

S/he says no all the time, the caregiver complains.

It is very common for a person that is deeply forgetful to say "no" when you ask them to do something. I don't know why, but it seems like this is a secret to many in the dementia community even though this is a common occurrence.

I knew for a long time when Dotty said "no" she didn't mean it. Nevertheless, it still drove me crazy, and often made me feel frustrated or angry.

Dementia Patients Face Needless Transitions at End of Life

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that

nearly one in five nursing home residents with advanced dementia experiences burdensome transitions in the last 90 days of life.

Dying from Dementia, Suffering Often Unnecessary

This discussion and research on Dying with Dementia and the unnecessary care that often accompanies the late stages is necessary reading in the Alzheimer's and dementia community.

+Alzheimer's Reading Room

Since individuals with advanced dementia cannot report their symptoms, these symptoms often are untreated, leaving them vulnerable to pain, difficulty breathing and various other conditions. 

We shouldn't allow these people to suffer. We should be providing palliative care to make them more comfortable in the time they have left.

As a teenager, I had the unfortunate but ultimately career-shaping experience of watching my maternal grandmother decline from Alzheimer's disease. 

She resided in a nursing home, where her final months were marked by repeated courses of antibiotics for infections and the use of restraints or medications to control her agitation before she died from one last infection. 

Seeing my grandmother in that state was so distressing that my mother eventually stopped taking the grandchildren to visit. My grandmother had little in the way of either comfort or company toward the end. 

~ Greg A. Sachs, M.D.

One of the Things that Helped My Mother's Anxiety

I also learned that saying "I love you" whenever your loved one becomes anxious quells fears and leave both parties basking in its glow.

Read

From the Collective Brain -- One of the Things that Helped My Mother's Anxiety

+Bob DeMarco +Alzheimer's Reading Room

When a UTI Goes Undetected in an Dementia Patient

Urinary Tract Infection, You Can Learn From My Experience

+Bob DeMarco , +Alzheimer's Reading Room

To learn more about Alzheimer's and Dementia visit the Alzheimer's Reading Room

Bing Search - dementia testing SAGE

SAGE is a brief self-administered cognitive screening instrument to identify Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and early dementia.