ALZHEIMER’S ANSWERS: Less Common Dementias: Understanding the Differences to Improve Care

The Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain and ElderCare Online are collaborating to provide caregivers with the latest production in our year-long series of online educational sessions on dementia topics. Each month, ElderCare Online (http://www.ec-online.net) will produce an hour-long chat session where caregivers can access a skilled professional from the Taub Institute (http://www.alzheimercenter.org) to discuss topics that help improve their knowledge of dementia and ability to care for their aging loved ones.

This month’s session will be conducted on Thursday, February 8 from 1PM to 2PM on the topic of “Less Common Dementias: Understanding the Differences to Improve Care.” Dr. Lawrence Honig, a leading expert on Alzheimer’s Disease research and treatment, will chat with you in a comfortable and casual setting. Caregivers are invited to attend the sessions in person through the ElderCare Online website (http://www.ec-online.net). Those who can not attend at the specified time may e-mail advance questions to askcasey@ec-online.net or read the transcript of the session the following day. Future topics and group leaders will be announced in this newsletter.

Topics to be addressed include (but may not be limited to):
- Fronto-temporal dementias (Pick's Disease), stroke-related dementia, parkinsonian syndromes (Dementia with Lewy Bodies)
- Differences in treatments and responses to therapies
- Differences in pathology
- Differences in disease history and progression

Lawrence Honig, M.D., Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (New York, NY). He is affiliated with the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center of Columbia University which hosts the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain at the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center. He is also works in the Department of Neurology (Division of Aging and Dementia).

Dr. Honig moved to Columbia University in Fall 2000, where he is actively involved in the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. His activities include patient care, clinical research, and laboratory-based research addressing nervous system degeneration. Previously, he was in the Department of Neurology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where he was also a senior investigator in the Dallas Alzheimer’s Disease Center. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Miami (Florida), his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, and underwent medical internship and neurology residency training at Stanford University Medical Center (California).

The Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain is a new interdisciplinary institute in Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. Their mission is to develop the means to identify vulnerable individuals at risk for Alzheimer's Disease and devise new therapies to prevent or delay disorders of the aging brain. If you or a loved one is in need of patient care, they can offer you the most advanced diagnostic and clinical care currently available. You can make an important contribution in the quest to develop new treatments by participating in clinical trials, signing up for brain donation, or supporting their research and clinical programs.

“It is our hope that with your help, future generations will no longer suffer from Alzheimer's disease and other devastating diseases of the brain,” said Richard Mayeux, M.D., M.Sc. and Michael L. Shelanski, M.D., Ph.D., Co-Directors of the Institute.

These chat sessions are not intended to serve as medical advice or diagnostic tools. They are educational in nature and should never substitute for the regular relationship between the patient and their caregivers, physicians or other heath care providers. Caregivers with medical emergencies or crises should contact their local emergency assistance rather than these chat sessions.

Send in advance questions to askcasey@ec-online.net

The transcript for the session is now available. It also includes a few responses to a few advance questions that we were not able to address in the short time of the chat session.

http://www.ec-online.net/Community/transcript20801.htm