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early Detection
UNT Health Science
Center researchers Sid
O’Bryant (left), Leigh
Johnson (center) and
James Hall are helping
identify risk factors for
Alzheimer’s disease.
40
It’s Just About Time
T
ime slips away for people with Alzheimer’s disease, and University of North Texas Health Science Center researchers understand this.
Several studies are underway to diagnose, identify
and predict those with the disease.
Leigh Johnson, Ph.D., in collaboration with James
Hall, Ph.D., and Sid O’Bryant, Ph.D., all of UNTHSC,
have discovered that a specific subset of depressed patients are at greater risk of developing mild cognitive
impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer’s.
While a 30-point questionnaire called the Geriatric
Depression Scale is already used by many primary care
physicians to determine whether their patients suffer
from depression, the UNTHSC team found that positive answers to five specific questions on this scale correlated to an increased risk of cognitive problems such
as MCI and Alzheimer’s.
Memory problems, feeling blue or worthless, frequently crying or trouble concentrating were the five
questions addressed in the study.
Hall, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health
at UNTHSC, led another study identifying cholesterol
as the major predictor of neuropsychiatric symptoms
among men with Alzheimer’s disease.
Apathy, depression, psychosis, agitation and sleep
disturbances are major factors in placing patients in
nursing homes, as well as the primary cause of emotional and physical stress for caregivers.
However, it was found that men with dementia
who have lower cholesterol are less likely to experience these symptoms.
Currently, the only accurate measure of whether
someone has Alzheimer’s disease is by brain autopsy;
however, O’Bryant is lead investigator in developing a
blood test to measure the presence of key proteins that
indicate whether a patient has the disease.
Researchers are hopeful that a blood test that could
be as routine as exams for high cholesterol or blood