Question:
As for me, I love working with dementia patients. Some have had veryinteresting lives because of their age and generation, and, of course,their long term memory is pretty good. Some charged the beach atNormandy. Many escaped by climbing over the Pyrenees (and othermountains), with their kids in their napsacks. Some torched their ownhomes before the Cossacks arrived, so that they'd think they had alreadybeen there, trying to spare their lives. Some little boys were dressedas little girls to cross a border, and stay alive. One was a guard atNurremburg. THAT struck home. He was a colonel, and let me call him byhis first name. I felt honored. I have ENORMOUS respect for thesepeople, many of whom walked head on into bullets, so I could surf thenet, and play with my cats. Obviously, they continue to make a greatimpression on me. And, I do my best to comfort them, and let them knowhow grateful I am for what they did without hesitation, but often withgreat fear. So, when I think times are tough for me, I think of them, myheroes!

What's your thoughts??? Can anyone give me some comments on this???

Answer: I learned it as DAT for Dementia, Alzheimer's Type but you would be closerto the source of what they are now standardizing it to be.

How about that new one being marketed...Exelon? It "appears" on paper to bebetter than Aricept because it works against two enzymes and not just thestandard AChase blocker. What has been your experience with it? I amstarting one out soon on it. First I will get a baseline MMSE and thenstart her on it and repeat it in 3 months.

BTW, ever see Lewey body dementia?

MMSE's are a good place to start, but quite crude. In clinical trialwork, every AD or VAD study must have an objective measure (the ADAS),AND, a trained clinician's (subjective) judgement (the CIBIC) asmeasures of change. I do both, but usually the latter.

ADAS = Alzhemimer Disease Assessment ScaleCIBIS = Clinician's Interview-Based Impression of Severity (forbaseline)CIBIC = Clinician's Interview-Based Impression of Change

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