Latest News

Credit: Penn Medicine News

By Leah Fein

The music we listen to early in life remains engrained in our brain and can even be recognized throughout the course of Alzheimer’s disease. Memory in Motion aimed to use this power of music to get people living with cognitive deficits and their caregivers up, moving, and having fun. Colby Damon, a former professional dancer with BalletX, led the group.

“Dance gets the heart rate up and the circulation flowing, but the only side effect is having fun,” Damon told Penn Medicine News. “It breaks the isolation, connecting them with music and thereby emotional associations they know and love.”

Jack Witzman (left) was always by his wife Jackie’s side as she participated in a clinical trial at the Penn Memory Center. Jackie has Alzheimer’s disease. (Photo by Terrence Casey)

By Sharnita Midgett

Jack Witzman remembers the first time his wife, Jackie, met the new executive director of Easterseals last summer while he toured the adult daycare. 

Upon meeting him, Jackie got up and started to dance. She was trying to teach him line dancing, and Jack knew that his wife enjoyed the atmosphere. A year later, Jackie became a 2019 Ambassador for Easterseals.  

By Sharnita Midgett

Despite its central role in defining the experiences of those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, stigma in dementia has been understudied.

In a paper published in Current Psychiatry titled Stigma in Dementia: It’s Time to Talk about It co-authored by Penn Memory Center Scholar, Shana Stites, PsyD, MA, MS, the authors highlight the impact of stigma on those with dementia, how it has been studied and addressed in the past, and steps to mitigate stigma in the future. The paper follows a collaboration of the authors for a symposium on stigma that they presented at the 2018 Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston.

By Leah Fein

Although voting is a fundamental right in the United States, people with serious mental illnesses (SMIs) often encounter barriers when voting. To better understand these barriers, researchers at Wesleyan University and Yale University conducted a review of current psychological and legal literature.

There are various federal laws that protect voting rights for persons with disabilities, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Help America Vote Act. However, the researchers found that certain state laws regarding voter competence, photo IDs, voter challenges and incarceration practices can unequally effect persons with SMIs. 

More specifically, only 10 states do not have any legal restrictions on voting for people with disabilities based on competence. All other states have a system in place to restrict voting rights of people with disabilities who are determined incapacitated. 

Illustration of amyloid plaques on a nerve cell

By Christine Willinger

Over the past 25 years, biomedical research has revolutionized the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Once based solely on clinical signs and symptoms, today’s diagnosis involves advanced methods that can detect neurodegeneration far earlier than before, including imaging and biological fluids. 

By Leah Fein and Christine Willinger

Researchers at the Penn Memory Center and their collaborators will present their work at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC), held in Los Angeles from July 14-18.

AAIC is the world’s leading forum for the advancement of dementia science, and the PMC team will share a wide range of research. 

By Cynthia Clyburn

A recent report published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and funded by Novartis evaluated the effects of three neurological conditions — migraine, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) — on people in the workplace.

With increased life expectancy and extended retirement ages, more older adults are part of the workforce. As a result, a growing number of employees are either living with AD or caring for someone with AD.

“Previously, by the time we saw these patients, they would be quite disabled and their history would include how they stopped work,” Penn Memory Center Co-Director Jason Karlawish wrote. “More often than not, now they have milder symptoms [of AD] and people are still at work [as they were diagnosed earlier].”

The Philadelphia Financial Exploitation Prevention Task Force

By Christine Willinger

A 77-year-old widow requests a withdrawal of $20,000 from her bank account. She just purchased a second home and needs the funds for home improvement, she says, and an account manager approves the request. 

One week later, she withdraws $30,000 for the same reason. The request goes through easily. 

Another week goes by; now she requests $100,000 for an “investment.” Concerned, the account manager offers to vet this investment opportunity, but she declines. The request goes through. 

The withdrawals were for neither home improvements nor investment opportunities; she was making payments to a “friend,” made on an online dating site, who claimed to need financial support to visit her in the U.S. 

This is a real case described by Nancy Heffner, CRCP, Director of Compliance at Lincoln Investment Planning and panelist at this year’s World Elder Abuse Awareness Day event, held by the Philadelphia Financial Exploitation Prevention Task Force.