An Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
Researchers have identified and named a distinct brain disorder that mimics some features of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and may have led to incorrect diagnoses in the past.
The disorder, known as LATE (Limbic-predominant Age-related TDP-43 Encephalopathy), develops when the naturally-occurring protein TDP-43 misfolds, causing AD-like symptoms. Scientists described LATE in a report published on April 30, 2019, in the journal Brain.
Moment to Moment, a short documentary about Penn Memory Center patient Carl Duzen and his wife, Susan Jewett, was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Independent Film Festival Boston.
The film by Mike Attie premiered in Philadelphia on April 25 and was followed by a panel discussion with PMC clinicians and staff, Attie, and representatives from ARTZ Philadelphia and Theatre of Witness.
The White House National Science and Technology Council recently released a new report detailing ways to support the lives of older adults and individuals living with disabilities through technology.
The 30-page report, titled “Emerging Technologies to Support an Aging Population,” addresses six main areas:
The Curtis Institute of Music would like to extend an exciting invitation to the Penn Memory Center (PMC) community to attend a final concert featuring participants from the Creative Expression Through Music Program.
Participants of the program are all PMC patients experiencing memory change, mild cognitive impairment, or early-stage dementia. Throughout seven classes, the last of which is Tuesday, they engaged in a collaborative musical experience, with a particular focus on creating original tunes.
The concert will consist entirely of pieces imagined by members of the PMC community, all performed by Curtis students. The Curtis Institute is a conservatory in Center City, Philadelphia that educates gifted students from around the world in the study of music. They’ve worked closely with PMC at Memory Cafés and Caregiver Retreats. But their interactive program is a new effort, piloted for the first time this year.
The Penn Memory Center continued its new Empowering Caregivers speaker series this year with Future Works Consulting’s Sharon Buckmaster, PhD, who presented “When, Why, and How to Move to a Memory Care Facility.”
Empowering Caregivers gives caregivers access to area experts who present on a variety of intensive topics, from in-home activities to end-of-life care.
All sessions are full. We appreciate your enthusiasm.
The Penn Memory Center team says goodbye and good luck to the latest corps of social work students, who have successfully completed their internships.
Sarah Bujno, Nora Garland, Laura Vargas, and Matt Volpe helped develop and maintain psychosocial support programs for patients and caregivers at PMC since the beginning of the academic year. Their last day is May 1, 2019.
Older adults susceptible to financial scams may have a greater chance of developing cognitive impairment, according to a study published April 16 ($) in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The research, conducted at the Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, involved 935 older adults who did not have dementia. They were assessed for “scam awareness” by rating their agreement to statements using a 7-point scale. There were five statements:
The National Alzheimer’s and Dementia Resource Center is hosting a webinar series, sponsored by the Administration for Community Living. A presentation, titled “The Messages We Send: Stigma Toward Persons Living with Dementia and How to End It,” will be led by Penn Memory Center scholar Shana Stites, PsyD, MA, MS and Rev. Cynthia Huling Hummel, D.Min., who is living with early stage dementia.
Webinar participants will be able to:
The presentation is on Tuesday, May 7 at 2 p.m. ET. It’s free and open to the public, but registration is required.
Penn Memory Center (PMC) Co-Director Jason Karlawish, MD, and PMC Scholar Cara Fallon, PhD, MPH, presented at the 2019 Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias (ADRD) Summit.
The duo gave an 11-minute talk titled, “Stigma: Considerations of Ethics and History.” Karlawish kicked off the conversation by informing the audience of their goal: “to help understand how stigma is embodied in nomenclature.”
He went on to detail that stigma is “both a mark and a process” and has three types: self-stigma (internalized stigma), public stigma (externalized/enacted stigma), and spillover stigma (stigma by association). He also discussed the ethical implications of stigma.
Fallon, a historian, then took the mic and educated the audience about the history of terms used for intellectual and development disabilities in the U.S.
Karlawish and Fallon acknowledge that a change in words alone will not end stigma. Rather, beliefs and attitudes need to change. The language will “both lead and follow,” he said.
To view a video of the first day of the summit, click here. Karlawish and Fallon’s presentation begins at 6:31:37.
The ADRD Summit took place March 14-15, 2019 at the Natcher Auditorium on the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, Maryland and was sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
A group of young scientists in Minnesota recently welcomed Penn Memory Center Co-Director Jason Karlawish, MD, into their classroom.
High school students in the Shattuck-St. Mary’s School bioscience enrichment program have been reading Karlawish’s 2011 historical novel Open Wound to enrich their study of the digestive system. Program Director Maren LaLiberty, MD, invited Karlawish to Skype in with the classroom before the students finished the book.
“There are certain aspects of anatomy and physiology that can really only be illuminated by stories,” LaLiberty said.