Alzheimer’s Research: Help by Getting Involved with Clinical Trials

Everyone is anxious for medical science to come up with better treatments that not only delay the progression of Alzheimer's, but that stop the progression all together. And what we really want is for science to tell us how to prevent any kind of dementia from starting in the first place. But how many are willing to enroll themselves or their elderly loved ones in a clinical trial so researchers can effectively study new treatments and methodology?

While in San Francisco recently to speak at Alzheimer's conferences, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Wes Ashford, Senior Research Scientist from the Stanford University/VA Aging Clinical Research Center. He's involved in a nationwide study (The Home Based Assessment Study) to evaluate the effectiveness of home-based assessment methods for memory protection research in people over 75 years old.

Usually to participate in a research study, volunteers go to a clinic to meet with healthcare professionals who collect information. The Home Based Assessment Study will evaluate three in-home types of information gathering (telephone, electronic kiosk, mail-in forms) and determine how practical each method is. Secondly, it will find out if the methods can detect a change and rate of change in both the volunteer's daily living activities and their functional capabilities over time. The final analysis will compare the methods to the traditional way of collecting information in a clinical setting.

If you or your loved one would like to help medical researchers without leaving the comfort of your home, you may be interested in participating in the Home-Based Assessment Study. For more information call: 650-852-3287 and see: https://adcs.ucsd.edu/HBA_protocol.htm

And if that study is not available in your area, please take the time to look into other clinical trials so you can actively help Alzheimer's research move forward. The links below might help...

http://clinicaltrials.gov/
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?term=alzheimer%27s

http://www.alzinfo.org/alzheimers-treatment-clinical.asp

http://www.nia.nih.gov/alzheimers
http://www.nia.nih.gov/Alzheimers/ResearchInformation/ClinicalTrials/

You can learn more about Jacqueline and find information about her book at ElderRage.com