TREATING NEUROPSYCHIATRIC PROBLEMS IN DEMENTIA

这个为期五年的学术奖项的目标是建立McCurry博士作为一个独立的研究人员，他可以整合一系列行为和身体干预的专业知识，并采用生理测量来评估这些干预的影响，以改善老年人的睡眠，心理社会功能和生活质量。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症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。她撰写或与人合作撰写了19篇文章和3本书的章节，这些文章或出版或出版。本奖项的目的是增加她的知识：1)年龄，精神状况，医疗合并症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，也可以推广到监测其他与痴呆相关的行为问题；3)躯体疗法（例如，光照和运动）可能适用于治疗失眠以及老年人的其他精神障碍。研究表明，阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者的夜间行为障碍是患者住院和护理人员心理和身体负担的常见来源。这项职业发展奖将允许McCurry博士评估一项为期8周的行为和躯体联合治疗的短期和长期可行性和有效性，以改善阿尔茨海默病患者的睡眠。这将使她能够识别与治疗结果相关的患者和护理者特征，如痴呆严重程度、行为障碍水平、抑郁症或合并症的存在、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（Linda Teri博士）和睡眠与年龄相关变化（Linda Teri博士）领域的现有主要合作基础上。Michael Vitiello和Pat Prinz)。此外，McCurry博士将与Dr. McCurry博士建立新的合作关系。索尼娅·安科利-伊斯雷尔和查尔斯·雷诺兹致力于发展睡眠评估、24小时活动和光监测以及共病的身体、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。这种培训机制将帮助McCurry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.