5 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
The purpose of this study is to determine if intensive lowering of systolic blood pressure (SBP), using FDA approved medications (antihypertensive), reduces Alzheimer's Disease pathology (i.e., excessive brain amyloid and tau protein deposition) in older adults at high risk for memory decline or dementia.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of liraglutide on the memory and attention of people with insulin resistance. Liraglutide is a medication that makes the body more sensitive to insulin, and therefore may allow it to manage sugar more effectively. The investigators are looking specifically at a region of the brain that is associated with memory and attention, called the hippocampus, in order to see whether treatment this treatment will change performance on memory and attention tasks. The investigators are also taking an MRI of the brain to see whether there are changes to the size and shape of the hippocampus after treatment. All subjects in this study will be 50-70 years old and have pre- diabetes. Half of all subjects will have a family history of dementia, while the other half will not.
Physical inactivity, high blood pressure and dyslipidemia are risk factors for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular dementia. Importantly, these risk factors are modifiable with lifestyle changes, pharmacological treatment, or both. The rrAD study will determine effects of aerobic exercise training and intensive vascular risk reduction on cognitive performance in older adults who have high risk for AD.
Approximately 66 million informal caregivers care for someone who is ill, disabled, or aged. These caregivers experience significant distress associated with caregiving, which may be particularly salient in the context of inherited conditions. Previous studies have not examined caregiving from a network perspective, nor have they considered how cognitive and emotional responses, such as caregivers worry for themselves and relatives acquiring the disease or guilt related to the genetic etiology of their child s illness, as possible stressors; the current project fills this literature gap. Caregiving processes may vary across type of illness and the life course. In illnesses that impact children, parents and grandparents may take on caregiving roles whereas in conditions that impact adults, spouses and adult children may provide care. Caregivers must adapt to the strain of caring for their affected relatives and this adaptation may differ depending on caregiver roles. The caregiver s support network may influence adaptation, impacting the health and well-being of patients, their caregivers, and other relatives. This project, comprised of 5 substudies, will examine social contexts surrounding families involved in caring for individuals with chronic inherited conditions from a relational perspective. Surveys and interviews will assess participants cognitions and emotions about the disease, caregiving burden and caregiving/support network systems. In addition, biomarkers will be considered in 2 substudies to examine how caregiving roles and expectations impact health among caregivers. As part of our current inquiry, we have developed an assessment tool aimed at understanding caregiver experiences related to dietary practices in the context of metabolic conditions. To evaluate the psychometric properties of this scale, we propose a fifth substudy under the current protocol. We aim to recruit at least 5550 participants through residential/daycare centers, advocacy groups, and the NIH Clinical Center. We will recruit formal caregivers, multiple biological and non-biological adult relatives of affected individuals and typically developing controls to construct and evaluate caregiving/support network systems. This project will use a social network framework to develop and adapt common measures of caregiving roles to evaluate burden, perceptual bias, and unmet expectations in caregiving. The psychometric properties of these new measures, characteristics of family caregiving and support networks, and how these network characteristics are associated with caregiving strain and well-being, including biomarkers of physical health, will be investigated. The moderating role of family members cognitions and emotions and disease context will be considered. Findings will guide future research to develop network-based interventions promoting positive adaptation to the presence of inherited conditions in families through improved social environments and coping skills....
This research study is being performed to better understand a specific form of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) caused by a mutation (or abnormality) of the C9ORF72 gene. This mutation is the most common genetic cause of ALS, and is present in 40% of ALS patients with a family history of ALS and 5-10% of ALS patients without a family history of ALS.