dementia

A drug that curbs delusions in Parkinson’s patients did the same for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia in a study that was stopped early because the benefit seemed clear.

Many older American adults may inaccurately estimate their chances for developing dementia and do useless things to prevent it, new research suggests. Almost half of adults surveyed believed they were likely to develop dementia. The results suggest many didn’t understand the connection between physical health and brain health and how racial differences can affect dementia risk. Substantial numbers of people...

Against a backdrop of disappointing Alzheimer’s disease clinical trial outcomes, two researchers are proposing a new approach for future study of the disease, according to a USC statement released Tuesday.

In the first large study to examine the diagnosis of dementia in older Americans over time, researchers, including from USC, found the vast majority never meet with a dementia specialist and are instead overwhelmingly diagnosed and cared for by non-specialists, according to a USC statement released Wednesday.

The 92-year-old had a painful tumor on his tongue, and major surgery was his best chance. Doctors called a timeout when he said he lived alone, in a rural farmhouse, and wanted to keep doing so. “It was ultimately not clear we could get him back there” after such a big operation, said Dr. Tom Robinson, chief of surgery at...

New research gives some biological clues to why women may be more likely than men to develop Alzheimer’s disease and how this most common form of dementia varies by sex. At the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, scientists offered evidence that the disease may spread differently in the brains of women than in men. Other researchers...

A healthy lifestyle can cut your risk of developing Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia even if you have genes that raise your risk for these mind-destroying diseases, a large study has found.

Jim Bouton, the former New York Yankees pitcher who shocked and angered the conservative baseball world with the tell-all book “Ball Four,” has died. He was 80. Bouton’s family said he died Wednesday at the Great Barrington, Massachusetts, home he shared with wife Paula Kurman. He fought a brain disease linked to dementia and was in hospice care. Bouton also...

The NFL concussion fund has paid out nearly $500 million in its first two years, but some players’ lawyers say there aren’t enough doctors in the approved network to evaluate dementia claims.

Few seniors get their thinking and memory abilities regularly tested during check-ups, according to a new report from the Alzheimer’s Association that raises questions about how best to find out if a problem is brewing. Medicare pays for an annual “wellness visit” that is supposed to include what’s called a cognitive assessment — a brief check for some early warning...

The Food and Drug Administration warned consumers on Tuesday that there’s no proof that blood plasma infusions from younger donors can treat diseases, prompting one company that charges thousands of dollars for the service to halt the treatments, NBC News reported. The company, Ambrosia, wrote in a statement on its website that it had “ceased patient treatments.” It has been...

“Chopper” the Boston Terrier, who rides an electronic motorcycle with a leather jacket and goggles, visited patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia in Chula Vista Wednesday.

Olivia Hooker, one of the last survivors of the 1921 Tulsa race riots and among the first black women in the U.S. Coast Guard, has died. She was 103.

President Donald Trump and Chief Justice John Roberts clashed Wednesday in an extraordinary public dispute over the independence of America’s judiciary, with Roberts bluntly rebuking the president for denouncing a judge who rejected his migrant asylum policy as an “Obama judge.” There’s no such thing, Roberts declared in a strongly worded statement contradicting Trump and defending judicial independence. Never silent...

Family members pleaded Wednesday for help to find an elderly couple who’s been missing for more than 24 hours.

A couple vanished from their Palmdale home. Ted Chen reports for the NBC4 News on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018.

It may be too late to stop Alzheimer’s in people who already have some mental decline. But what if a treatment could target the very earliest brain changes while memory and thinking skills are still intact, in hope of preventing the disease? Two big studies are going all out to try. Clinics throughout the United States and some other countries...

A new system of trackable bracelets designed to quickly locate people with autism, dementia or Alzheimer’s disease when they go missing was introduced Wednesday by Los Angeles County officials.

The 75-year-old woman who left a care center on the grounds of San Francisco General Hospital alone and was found dead nearby days later was in such frail medical and mental condition that she was supposed to be escorted on appointments, an NBC Bay Area review of newly disclosed medical records shows.

More than $500 million in claims were approved as of Monday under the NFL’s concussion settlement, nearly a decade earlier than league officials estimated they would reach that amount. Claims administrators in the settlement released an updated report on the concussion settlement information website saying about $502 million had been approved in less than two years of the settlement. The...