Dementia
Dementia is a broad term that describes numerous conditions relating to a decline in cognitive function beyond the normal ageing process. The most common form of dementia is Alzheimer's disease which accounts for up to 70 per cent of all dementias. Other types of dementia include Lewy Bodies dementia, vascular dementia, Korsakov's syndrome and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Symptoms typically include memory loss, confusion, difficulty with familiar tasks, and changes in personality, mood, and behaviour. Dementia represents a significant burden on the community in financial, emotional and social terms.
This disease is being researched in the following projects:
Research Projects
- Best Practice and the Care of Older Persons with Dementia in the Emergency Department: A critical ethnography
- Cognition and type 2 Diabetes in Older Tasmanians (CDOT) Studies
- Development and evaluation of an innovative self help coping program for dementia care givers (CarersCARE)
- Managing Dementia in the Rural Context
- Tasmanian Study of Cognition and Gait (TASCOG)
- ASPREE: A double-blind randomised controlled trial of low dose aspirin for healthy ageing
- Identifying the Earliest Brain Changes Associated with Dementia
- Mechanisms of Synaptic Scaling in the Progression of Alzheimer's Disease
- Mechanisms that Cause Synaptic Dystrophy in Alzheimer's Disease
- Mechanisms that Control the Progression of Alzheimer's Disease
- The Role of Homer in the Pathogenesis of Alzheimer's Disease