Physical activity attenuates neuropsychiatric disturbances and caregiver burden in patients with dementia

INTRODUCTION: A significant benefit from physical activity has recently been described in some patients who suffer from neurodegenerative diseases. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of physical activity on neuropsychiatric disturbances in demented patients and on the mental burden of their caregivers. METHODS: Assisted by a public geriatric psychiatry clinical unit, we studied 59 patients with dementia. Patients were divided into three groups according to their diagnosis and level of physical activity. Data were assessed through a semi-structured interview. Patients were evaluated with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, the Mini-Sleep Questionnaire and the Baecke Questionnaire. The data were statistically analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test and linear regression, with the level of significance set at 5 percent. RESULTS: Patients with Alzheimer's or vascular dementia who engaged in physical activity had fewer neuropsychiatric symptoms than those who did not. When compared to the control group, the caregivers of patients with vascular dementia who engaged in physical activity had a reduced burden. CONCLUSION: The regular practice of physical activity seems to contribute to a reduction in neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia patients and to attenuate the burden of the caregivers of those patients.

Cerebral amyloid angiopathy presenting as a posterior leukoencephalopathy: a case report and review of the literature.

Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is well known to present with lobar intracerebral hemorrhage, dementia or transient neurological events. White matter changes with CAA have only been recently described and can be seen with either sporadic or familial CAA. We present a 50-year-old man with rapidly progressive dementia in whom MRI brain showed symmetrical white matter changes in the parieto-occipital regions. Brain biopsy revealed changes of CAA along with features of Alzheimer's disease. Immunohistochemistry revealed amyloid beta protein. The subcortical lesions were thought to occur from hypoperfusion of the distal white matter. The role of amyloid in the pathogenesis of CAA and the mechanism of leukoencephalopathy are discussed.

Doença de Binswanger: estudo anátomo-clínico de um caso / Binswanger's disease: anatomoclinical study of a case

Descreve-se o caso de uma paciente com doença de Binswanger e que foi acompanhada durante 10 anos, antes e depois da síndrome demencial. O diagnóstico clínico ficou estabelecido pela história, exames clínico e neurológico, e avaliaçäo neuropsicológica. As imagens de tomografia cerebral computadorizada e, principalmente, de ressonância magnética do crânio sugeriram o diagnóstico, o qual foi confirmado pelo estudo anßtomo-patológico. Comentam-se os dados clínicos e comportamentais, aspectos de ordem radiológica e histopatológica, confrontando-os à literatura.