ETHNICITY & PREDICTORS OF FUNCTIONAL DECLINE IN DEMENTIA

阿尔茨海默病(AD)仍然是一种坚持不懈的进行性疾病， 治疗仅限于对患者的管理，对家庭的缓解 精神疾病和内科疾病的治疗。 阿尔茨海默病任何阶段的治疗都是为了改善或改善 优化患者的功能能力。由于…的速度和类型 阿尔茨海默病患者的功能恶化是非常不稳定的 家庭往往无法建立现实的期望，可以 没有为未来做好充分的规划。我们实验室的数据显示 种族和特定星座等因素 在基线观察到的神经心理缺陷可能对 预测某些纵向功能衰退的模式。这 具有潜在的重要性，因为任何允许 预测随后的功能退化在早期阶段 AD将协助规划有效的心理社会干预措施。这个 拟议的研究将调查初始模式在多大程度上 西班牙裔和西班牙裔美国人的认知/神经心理测试 非西班牙裔阿尔茨海默病(AD)患者可以用来预测 随着时间的推移，不同的功能退化模式和速度。 使用全面的认知/神经心理学电池，威尔 使我们能够检查特定情况下的损害程度 神经心理学领域(即记忆、注意力、语言、 视觉感知能力/实践和更高层次的问题解决能力 能力)预测观察到的功能能力和 不同功能领域内的恶化。诸如以下因素 并存的医疗和精神疾病以及人口统计变量，如 它们还与功能退化的预测有关 检查过了。这项研究的一个独特之处在于，传统的功能性 产生全球分数的评估工具将得到以下补充 一系列广泛的措施，可直接评估 在临床中具有广泛的不同功能 布景。这项调查是第一次试图描绘出 特定的认知/神经心理过程和其他因素 可能调解和预测两者中有害的功能恶化 西班牙裔和非西班牙裔人口。此外，在数据库中获得的数据 目前的调查有可能提供有用的信息 这将导致早期心理社会干预的发展，如 以及具体的管理方法。

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) remains a relentlessly progressive disorder with therapy restricted to management of the patient, alleviation of family distress and the treatment of comorbid psychiatric and medical disease. Therapy at any stage of AD is aimed at achieving improvements in or optimizing the patient's functional ability. Since the rate and type of functional deterioration among AD patients is quite variable, the patient and family often are unable to establish realistic expectations and can not adequately plan for the future. Data from our laboratories indicate that factors such as ethnicity and specific constellations of neuropsychological deficits observed at baseline may be useful in predicting certain patterns of functional decline longitudinally. This is of potential importance since any method that allows for the prediction of subsequent functional deterioration in the early stages of AD would assist in planning effective psychosocial interventions. The proposed study Will investigate the extent to which initial patterns of cognitive/neuropsychological test performance among Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Alzheimer's Disease (AD) patients can be used to predict different patterns and rates of functional deterioration over time. Employment of a comprehensive cognitive/neuropsychological battery, will enable us to examine the extent to which impairment in specific neuropsychological domains (i.e. memory, attention, language, visuoperceptive abilities/praxis, and higher-order problem-solving abilities) predicts observed functional competence and the course of deterioration within different functional domains. Factors such as comorbid medical and psychiatric disease and demographic variables as they relate to the prediction of functional deterioration will also be examined. A unique aspect of this study is that traditional functional assessment instruments which yield global scores, will be supplemented by an extensive battery of measures which provide direct assessment of a wide array of different functional capacities within the clinical setting. This investigation represents the first attempt to delineate specific cognitive/neuropsychological processes and other factors which may mediate and predict deleterious functional deterioration within both Hispanic and Non-Hispanic populations. Further, the data obtained in the present investigation has the potential to provide useful information that will lead to the development of early psychosocial interventions as well as specific approaches to management.