TREATING NEUROPSYCHIATRIC PROBLEMS IN DEMENTIA

这个为期五年的学术奖的目的是建立麦柯里博士作为一个独立的研究人员谁可以整合在一系列的行为和躯体干预的专业知识，并采用生理措施来评估这些干预措施的影响，以改善睡眠，心理社会功能，和老年人的生活质量。 该奖项将建立在McCurry博士在心理治疗结果研究方面的现有技能和培训的基础上，并将为她提供一个机会，将她的知识扩展到痴呆患者的睡眠和夜间行为障碍治疗领域。 麦柯里博士完成了为期两年的老年心理学博士后研究奖学金。 她已经撰写或合著了19篇文章和3本书的章节，因为该奖学金，无论是出版或出版。 本奖项的目的是增加她对以下方面的了解：1）年龄，精神状况，医学共病和睡眠质量之间的相互作用; 2）客观的睡眠评估和监测技术，也可以推广到其他痴呆症相关行为问题的监测; 3）躯体治疗（例如，光暴露和运动），这可能适用于治疗老年人的失眠以及其他精神障碍。 研究表明，阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者的夜间行为障碍是患者机构化和照顾者心理和身体负担的常见来源。 这项职业发展奖将使McCurry博士能够评估为期8周的行为和躯体治疗组合的短期和长期可行性和有效性，以改善诊断为AD的人的睡眠。 它将使她能够识别与治疗结果相关的患者和护理人员特征，例如痴呆严重程度，行为障碍水平，抑郁症或共病的存在，文化背景和年龄。这项研究将建立在McCurry博士与华盛顿大学教师在行为管理（琳达泰瑞博士）和睡眠中与年龄相关的变化（迈克尔维蒂洛博士和帕特普林茨博士）领域的现有主要合作基础上。 此外，McCurry博士将与Sonia Ancoli-Israel和Charles Reynolds博士建立新的合作关系，以发展睡眠评估，24小时活动和光线监测以及共病身体，精神和环境因素在老年人睡眠问题发展中的作用方面的专业知识。 这种培训机制将协助麦柯里博士过渡到华盛顿大学的独立调查员，以及老年心理学的教师和临床医生。

The objective of this five year academic award is to establish Dr. McCurry as an independent researcher who can integrate expertise in a range of behavioral and somatic interventions, and employ physiological measures to assess the impact of these interventions, in order to improve the sleep, psychosocial functioning, and quality of life of older adults. This award will build on Dr. McCurry's existing skills and training in psychological treatment outcome research, and will provide her with an opportunity to expand her knowledge into the field of sleep and treatment of nighttime behavioral disturbances in patients with dementia. Dr. McCurry completed a two year post- doctoral research fellowship in geriatric psychology. She has authored or co-authored 19 articles and 3 book chapters since that fellowship that are either published or in press. The aim of the present award is to increase her knowledge of: 1) the interaction between age, psychiatric conditions, medical comorbidy, and sleep quality; 2) objective sleep assessment and monitoring techniques that may also generalize to monitoring of other dementia-related behavior problems; and 3) somatic therapies (e.g., light exposure and exercise) that may be appropriate for the treatment of insomnia as well as other mental disorders in older adults. Research has suggested that nighttime behavioral disturbances in persons with Alzheimer's disease (AD) are a common source of patient institutionalization and caregiver psychological and physical burden. This career development award will allow Dr. McCurry to evaluate the short- and long-term feasibility and efficacy of an 8-week combination behavioral and somatic treatment for improving sleep in persons diagnosed with AD. It will enable her to identify patient and caregiver characteristics associated with treatment outcome, such as dementia severity, level of behavioral disturbance, presence of depression or comorbid disease, cultural background, and age. This study will build upon Dr. McCurry's existing major collaborations with faculty at University of Washington in the areas of behavior management (Dr. Linda Teri) and age-related change in sleep (Drs. Michael Vitiello and Pat Prinz). In addition, Dr. McCurry will develop new collaborative relationships with Drs. Sonia Ancoli-Israel and Charles Reynolds to develop an expertise in sleep assessment, 24-hour activity and light monitoring, and the role of comorbid physical, psychiatric, and environmental factors in the development of sleep problems in the elderly. This training mechanism will assist Dr. McCurry in making the transition to an independent investigator at the University of Washington, as well as a teacher and clinician in geriatric psychology.