This review article examines current knowledge about the efficacy of art therapy based on the findings of 8 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) conducted with adult populations from 2008-2013 that met a high standard of rigor. Of these studies, all but one reported beneficial effects of art therapy. Review findings suggest that art therapy may…

Purpose: This article reports on a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects of spaced retrieval training (SRT) on semantic memory in people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) or related disorder. Method: An initial systematic database search identified 454 potential studies. After screening and de-duplication, 35 studies that used SRT…

Background: Communication problems stemming from Alzheimer's disease (AD) often result in misunderstandings that can be linked with problem behaviours and increased caregiver stress. Moreover, these communication breakdowns also can result either from caregivers' use of ineffective communication strategies, which paradoxically are…

Despite the prevalence of the disease, it appears that there may be a need for increased education for formal and family caregivers of those with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. Today's college students will be asked to fill both of these roles in the future. This study examined the level of knowledge of Alzheimer's…

Background: Disability staff are being increasingly required to support adults with Down syndrome who develop Alzheimer's disease. They have little understanding of the nature of care required, and may lack input from aged care and dementia services, which lack knowledge of intellectual disability. The aim of this study was to report on the…

Down syndrome (DS) is one of many causes of intellectual disability (ID), others including but not limited to, fetal alcohol syndrome, Fragile X syndrome, Rett syndrome, Williams syndrome, hypoxia, and infection. Down syndrome is characterized by a number of neurobiological problems resulting in learning and memory deficits and early onset…

Dementia may be more common in older adults with intellectual disability (ID) than in the general population. The increased risk for Alzheimer's disease in people with Down syndrome (DS) is well established, but much less is known about dementia in adults with ID who do not have DS. We estimated incidence rates from a longitudinal study of…

This study extended the assessment of a computer-aided telephone system to enable five patients with a diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease to make phone calls independently. The patients were divided into two groups and exposed to intervention according to a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across groups. All patients started with baseline in…

The high prevalence of sleep disorders, particularly obstructive sleep apnea, is well established in children with Down syndrome. However, only a few studies have focused on older children and young adults in this population. Given the presence of sleep disorders and the early emergence of Alzheimer's disease, more work is needed to examine the…

The development of disease concepts for conditions such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an ongoing social process that evolves over time. The biomedical paradigm about AD that has informed our culture's understanding of brain aging for the past several decades is currently undergoing a major and timely renovation in the early 21st century. This…

We assessed the impact and social rating of an active and a passive music condition implemented with six patients with Alzheimer's disease. In the active condition, the patients used a simple hand response and a microswitch to self-regulate music stimulation inputs. In the passive condition, music stimulation was automatically presented throughout…

The present study (a) extended the assessment of an orientation program involving auditory cues (i.e., verbal messages automatically presented from the destinations) with five patients with Alzheimer's disease, (b) compared the effects of this program with those of a program with light cues (i.e., a program in which strobe lights were used instead…

Category-specific deficits have rarely been reported in semantic dementia (SD). To our knowledge, only four previous studies have documented category-specific deficits, and these have focused on the living versus non-living things contrast rather than on more fine-grained semantic categories. This study aimed to determine whether a…

Background: To assess the hypothesis that in a sample of very healthy elderly men selected to minimize risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and cerebrovascular disease, myelin breakdown in late-myelinating regions mediates age-related slowing in cognitive processing speed (CPS). Materials and methods: The prefrontal lobe white matter and the genu of…

Stage theories are prominent and controversial in science. One possible reason for their appeal is that they provide order and predictability. Participants in Experiment 1 rated stage theories as more orderly and predictable (but less credible) than continuum theories. In Experiments 2-5, we showed that order threats increase the appeal of stage…