TREATING NEUROPSYCHIATRIC PROBLEMS IN DEMENTIA

这项为期五年的学术奖项的目标是将McCurry博士确立为一名独立研究人员，他可以整合一系列行为和躯体干预方面的专业知识，并使用生理指标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，将她的知识扩展到睡眠和痴呆症患者夜间行为障碍的治疗领域。麦柯里博士完成了两年的老年心理学博士后研究奖学金。自那次联谊会以来，她已经撰写或合著了19篇文章和3个书的章节，这些文章或出版或出版。这个奖项的目的是增加她在以下方面的知识：1)年龄、精神疾病、医学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，这些技术也可以推广到对其他与痴呆症相关的行为问题的监测；以及3)可能适合于治疗失眠和其他老年人精神障碍的躯体疗法(例如，光照和运动)。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照顾者心理和身体负担的常见来源。这一职业发展奖将使McCurry博士能够评估为期8周的行为和躯体联合治疗改善被诊断为AD患者的睡眠的短期和长期可行性和有效性。这将使她能够识别与治疗结果相关的患者和照顾者特征，如痴呆症严重程度、行为障碍程度、是否存在抑郁症或合并疾病、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员在行为管理(Linda Teri博士)和与年龄相关的睡眠变化(Michael Vitiello博士和Pat Prince z博士)领域现有的主要合作的基础上。此外，麦柯里博士还将与以色列的索尼娅·安科利博士和查尔斯·雷诺兹博士发展新的合作关系，以发展睡眠评估、24小时活动和光线监测方面的专业知识，以及身体、精神和环境因素在老年人睡眠问题发展中的作用。这种培训机制将帮助麦柯里博士过渡到华盛顿大学的独立研究员，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.