Barry Reisberg

New York University | NYU · Department of Psychiatry

Background Rates of hospitalization are 3 times higher for community‐dwelling Alzheimer’s disease (AD) persons than non‐affected, age‐matched persons (Rudolph et al., J Am Geriatr Soc. 2010). These investigators reported that hospital outcomes were significantly worse for AD patients regarding delirium, prolonged length of stay, institutionalizatio...

Objective: Self-perceived cognitive functioning, considered highly relevant in the context of aging and dementia, is assessed in numerous ways-hindering the comparison of findings across studies and settings. Therefore, the present study aimed to link item-level self-report questionnaire data from international aging studies. Method: We harmoniz...

We conducted a 28‐week, single‐blind, randomized, controlled trial of the efficacy of Comprehensive, Individualized, Person‐Centered Management (CI‐PCM) and memantine treatment (Reisberg et al., Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord, 2017) in advanced AD persons. CI‐PCM and memantine was approximately 7.5 times more beneficial to AD persons on the Functional...

Background: Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) are burdensome and disturbing for caregivers and persons living with Alzheimer's disease (AD). They are also a primary cause of institutionalization of Alzheimer's persons. Physicians use psychotropic medications to treat the BPSD of AD. Many of these medications have deleterious...

Clinical and neuropathological staging of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) neurodegeneration and neuronal loss dynamics is the baseline for identification of treatment targets and timing. The aim of this study of 14 brain regions in 25 subjects diagnosed with AD and 13 age-matched control subjects was to establish the pattern of neurodegeneration, and the...

Background Older adults (65+) are among the fastest growing segments of the population, projected to double by 2050. Oldest‐old (85+) manifest the greatest relative increase in population and have the greatest risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Depression is a chronic, debilitating condition in older adults. Depressive symptoms, particula...

Background We published results of a clinician‐blind, parallel‐group study of Comprehensive, Individualized, Person‐Centered Management (CI‐PCM) in moderate‐to‐severe, community‐residing, Alzheimer’s persons (Reisberg…Kenowsky, Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord, 2017). CI‐PCM intervention subjects (n=10) showed 967% greater global improvement than subject...

Background Neuropsychological tests are useful in the assessment of cognitive functioning, but whites have consistently performed better than other racial/ethnic groups. The utility of some of these tests has not been fully established for Hispanic elderly, and especially among relatively highly educated Spanish‐speaking Hispanics. Method Seventy‐...

Background: We have described the clinical stages of the brain aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD) continuum. In terms of the pre-dementia stages of AD, we introduced the terminology "mild cognitive impairment" (MCI) for the first pre-dementia stage and "subjective cognitive decline" (SCD) for the pre-MCI stage. We now report the characteristics of...

Background: Little is known with respect to behavioral markers of subjective cognitive decline (SCD), a condition initially described in association with Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) stage 2. Objective: Two-year interval behavioral markers were investigated herein. Methods: Subjects from a published 7-year outcome study of GDS stage 2 subj...

Background: Little is known with respect to behavioral markers of Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD), a condition initially described in association with Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) stage 2. Objective: Two year interval behavioral markers were investigated herein. Methods: Subjects from a published 7 year outcome study of GDS stage 2 subjects...

Abstract: Background: Little is known with respect to behavioral markers of subjective cognitive decline (SCD), a condition initially described in association with Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) stage 2. Objective: Two-year interval behavioral markers were investigated herein. Methods: Subjects from a published 7-year outcome study of GDS stage 2...

Background: Little is known with respect to behavioral markers of subjective cognitive decline (SCD), a condition initially described in association with Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) stage 2. Objective: Two­year interval behavioral markers were investigated herein. Methods: Subjects from a published 7­year outcome study of GDS stage 2 subjects...

Introduction: In this multicenter study on subjective cognitive decline (SCD) in community-based and memory clinic settings, we assessed the (1) incidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and non-AD dementia and (2) determinants of progression to dementia. Methods: Eleven cohorts provided 2978 participants with SCD and 1391 controls. We estimated dement...

Introduction: In this multicenter study on subjective cognitive decline (SCD) in community-based and memory clinic settings, we assessed the (1) incidence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and non-AD dementia and (2) determinants of progression to dementia. Methods: Eleven cohorts provided 2978 participants with SCD and 1391 controls. We estimated dement...

Background This study investigated the characteristics of subjective memory complaints (SMCs) and their association with current and future cognitive functions. Methods A cohort of 209 community-dwelling individuals without dementia aged 47–90 years old was recruited for this 3-year study. Participants underwent neuropsychological and clinical ass...

Increase in human life expectancy has resulted in the rapid growth of the elderly population with minimal or no intellectual deterioration. The aim of this stereological study of 10 structures and 5 subdivisions with and without neurofibrillary degeneration in the brains of 28 individuals 25-102-years-old was to establish the pattern of age-associa...

Background/aims: The aim was to examine added benefits of a Comprehensive, Individualized, Person-Centered Management (CI-PCM) program to memantine treatment. Methods: This was a 28-week, clinician-blinded, randomized, controlled, parallel-group study, with a similar study population, similar eligibility criteria, and a similar design to the mem...

Introduction: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) manifesting before clinical impairment could serve as a target population for early intervention trials in Alzheimer's disease (AD). A working group, the Subjective Cognitive Decline Initiative (SCD-I), published SCD research criteria in the context of preclinical AD. To successfully apply them, a n...

IMPORTANCE: Mutations in known causal Alzheimer disease (AD) genes account for only 1% to 3%of patients and almost all are dominantly inherited. Recessive inheritance of complex phenotypes can be linked to long (>1-megabase [Mb]) runs of homozygosity (ROHs) detectable by single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the associ...

Research increasingly suggests that subjective cognitive decline (SCD) in older adults, in the absence of objective cognitive dysfunction or depression, may be a harbinger of non-normative cognitive decline and eventual progression to dementia. Little is known, however, about the key features of self-report measures currently used to assess SCD. Th...

Background: Little is known about the long-term acceptance and effects of cognitive and motor stimulation interventions (CMSI) in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Objective: To evaluate a replicable CMSI program for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild-to-moderate AD persons. Methods: Eighty-four non-institutionalized subjects with AD were random...

Recently, a rare variant in the amyloid precursor protein gene (APP) was described in a population from Iceland. This variant, in which alanine is replaced by threonine at position 673 (A673T), appears to protect against late-onset Alzheimer disease (AD). We evaluated the frequency of this variant in AD cases and cognitively normal controls to dete...

With increasing numbers of people with Alzheimer's and other dementias across the globe, many countries have developed national plans to deal with the resulting challenges. In the United States, the National Alzheimer's Project Act, signed into law in 2011, required the creation of such a plan with annual updates thereafter. Pursuant to this, the U...

There is increasing evidence that subjective cognitive decline (SCD) in individuals with unimpaired performance on cognitive tests may represent the first symptomatic manifestation of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The research on SCD in early AD, however, is limited by the absence of common standards. The working group of the Subjective Cognitive Decli...

Neuropsychological and depression measures have been found to predict cognitive functioning. We compared these associations among whites and Spanish-speaking Hispanics. Fifty-two pairs of whites and Hispanics were matched demographically and clinically in a cross-sectional study. Hierarchical regression analyses predicted Global Deterioration Scale...

Background: Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) and associated disturbances in Alzheimer's disease (AD) are a source of distress and burden for spouses, professional caregivers, and others with responsibilities for the care of individuals with AD. BPSD with behavioral disturbances are also associated with more rapid institutio...

Despite the highly developed social services in Austria, the County of Upper Austria, one of the nine counties of Austria had only very limited specialized services for persons with dementia and their caregivers in 2001. Support groups existed in which the desire for more specialized services was voiced. In response to this situation, funding was r...

Pancreatitis is a complex, progressively destructive inflammatory disorder. Alcohol was long thought to be the primary causative agent, but genetic contributions have been of interest since the discovery that rare PRSS1, CFTR and SPINK1 variants were associated with pancreatitis risk. We now report two associations at genome-wide significance ident...

Background It has been shown that amyloid ß (Aβ), a product of proteolytic cleavage of the amyloid β precursor protein (APP), accumulates in neuronal cytoplasm in non-affected individuals in a cell type-specific amount.Methodology/principal findingsIn the present study, we found that the percentage of amyloid-positive neurons increases in subjects...

Neurons with low and high amyloid load. In control brains, the percentage of Aβ-positive neurons and their amyloid load is much lower in CA1 than in CA4 sector and is very low in the granule neurons in the dentate gyrus. The percentage of Aβ-positive neurons and amyloid load is significantly higher in the dup(15) autism cohort than in the control a...

Topography and morphology of neocortical diffuse plaques. Low magnification demonstrates diffuse plaques immunostained with mAb4G8 (17–24 aa) in frontal, temporal and occipital cortex (FC, TC and OC, respectively) in the brain of a 39-year-old female diagnosed with dup(15) autism, a 51-year-old autistic male, and a 52-year-old subject with atypical...

The Alzheimer Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC) performed a genome-wide association study of late-onset Alzheimer disease using a three-stage design consisting of a discovery stage (stage 1) and two replication stages (stages 2 and 3). Both joint analysis and meta-analysis approaches were used. We obtained genome-wide significant results at MS4A4A...

Several studies draw attention to the fact that elder abuse is a complex and multi-dimensional social problem. It has been noticed that institutionalization and disturbing behaviors that result from dementia represent risk factors for mistreatment. In this regard, we have tested if an adapted version of Child Abuse and Trauma Scale can efficiently...

Triplication of chromosome 21 in Down syndrome (DS) results in overexpression of the minibrain kinase/dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylated and regulated kinase 1A gene (DYRK1A). DYRK1A phosphorylates cytoplasmic tau protein and appears in intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs). We have previously shown significantly more DYRK1A-positive N...

Summary“Staging methods have been applied to dementia for nearly 175 years. Currently, two different dementia staging procedures are widely used. These are the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) and the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) Staging System. The latter include, in addition to the GDS staging, the Functional Assessment Staging (FAST) and the B...

Nonpharmacological therapies (NPTs) can improve the quality of life (QoL) of people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their carers. The objective of this study was to evaluate the best evidence on the effects of NPTs in AD and related disorders (ADRD) by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis of the entire field. Existing reviews and majo...

Cognitive, global and functional instruments have been extensively investigated for correlations with neuropathological changes such as neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), plaques, and synapse loss in the brain. Our objective is to correlate the functional, global and cognitive decline assessed clinically with the neuropathological changes observed in...

Background: Subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) in older persons without manifest symptomatology is a common condition with a largely unclear prognosis. We hypothesized that (1) examining outcome for a sufficient period by using conversion to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia would clarify SCI prognosis, and (2) with the aforementioned...

In this paper we summarize the results of our analysis of data provided by the Aging and Dementia Research Center (ADRC) at the New York University Medical Center. This database stores a series of results of examinations of thousands of subjects with ostensibly normal brain aging, subjective cognitive impairment, mild cognitive impairment, Alzheime...

The Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study-Clinical Global Impression of Change (ADCS-CGIC) was modified for use in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) trials and tested in the ADCS MCI randomized clinical trial of donepezil, vitamin E, and placebo. We assessed feasibility for its use by determining whether or not: (1) it distinguished a medication effe...

This document proposes an array of recommendations for a National Plan of Action to accelerate the discovery and development of therapies to delay or prevent the onset of disabling symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. A number of key scientific and public-policy needs identified in this document will be incorporated by the Alzheimer Study Group into a...

As people live longer, there is increasing potential for mental disorders to interfere with testamentary distribution and render older people more vulnerable to "undue influence" when they are making a will. Accordingly, clinicians dealing with the mental disorders of older people will be called upon increasingly to advise the courts about a person...

We report the first clinicopathological series of longitudinal FDG-PET scans in post-mortem (PM) verified cognitively normal elderly (NL) followed to the onset of Alzheimer's-type dementia (DAT), and in patients with mild DAT with progressive cognitive deterioration. Four NL subjects and three patients with mild DAT received longitudinal clinical,...

The gene encoding the minibrain kinase/dual-specificity tyrosine phosphorylated and regulated kinase 1A (DYRK1A) is located in the Down syndrome (DS) critical region of chromosome 21. The third copy of DYRK1A is believed to contribute to abnormal brain development in patients with DS. In vitro studies showing that DYRK1A phosphorylates tau protein...

The aim of the study was to compare the performance of Robust and Conventional neuropsychological norms in predicting clinical decline among healthy adults and in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The authors developed Robust baseline cross sectional and longitudinal change norms from 113 healthy participants retaining a normal diagnosis for at leas...

Magnetic resonance (MRI) studies rely on sulcal boundaries to delineate the human entorhinal cortex (EC) and typically show that EC size is reduced in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and a predictor of future dementia. However, it is unknown if variations in the EC sulcal patterns are associated with AD. We classified the lateral EC sulcal boundary as eit...

At the present time, there is increasing recognition and understanding of the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) entity as a stage which is a frequent precursor and harbinger of subsequently manifest Alzheimer's disease (AD) and, perhaps, other related conditions, such as vascular dementia (Gauthier et al ., 2006). MCI has been defined in two disparat...

Descriptions of dementia can be traced to antiquity. Prichard (1837) described four dementia stages and Kral (1962) described a “benign senescent forgetfulness” condition. The American Psychiatric Association's DSM-III (1980) identified an early dementia stage. In 1982, the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) and the Global Deterioration Scale (GDS) wer...

Subjective cognitive impairment (SCI) has been a common, but poorly understood condition, frequently occurring in older persons. The past and the emerging literature on SCI and synonymously named conditions is reviewed. Findings include: (1) There is support from at least one longitudinal study for a long-standing concept of SCI as a pre-mild cogni...

Global measures used in treatment trials in dementia encompass two distinct categories: (1) clinician's interview-based global severity scales, and (2) clinician's interview-based global change scales. The global severity scales that have been used include: the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) and the related CDR-sum of boxes (CDR-SB), the Global Det...

Amyloid beta (Abeta) immunoreactivity in neurons was examined in brains of 32 control subjects, 31 people with Down syndrome, and 36 patients with sporadic Alzheimer's disease to determine if intraneuronal Abeta immunoreactivity is an early manifestation of Alzheimer-type pathology leading to fibrillar plaque formation and/or neurofibrillary degene...

Previously we have shown that functional declines in Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) correlate to global measures of cognitive decline. We now determine if the correlation between cognitive impairment and functional ability in PD is similar to that in AD using individual cognitive measures. 93 PD subjects and 124 AD/MCI subjec...

Subjective memory complaint (SMC) in normal individuals may predict future cognitive decline. The goal of this study was to examine whether the probability of decline increases with growing intensity of complaint. Normal subjects over the age of 50 years were included in a longitudinal retrospective study (mean follow-up time = 8 years). All subjec...

Because primary prevention trials will require large samples and modest treatment effects are expected, the use of standard clinician-administered, clinic-based measures are unlikely to be feasible. There is a need for proxy-administered outcome measures. The goal of the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) Prevention Instrument Project was...

Planning is being initiated for the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th ed. (DSM-V). Therefore, the dementia diagnosis criteria in the American Psychiatric Association's DSM-IV-TR (4th ed, text revision, 2000) have been compared with the World Health Orga