12^th World Congress on Advances and Innovations in Dementia September 17-18, 2018 Singapore

Neurodegenerative diseases cause your brain and nerves to deteriorate over time. They can change your personality and cause confusion. They can also destroy your brain’s tissue and nerves. Some brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, may develop as you age. They can slowly impair your memory and thought processes. Other diseases, such as Tay-Sachs disease, are genetic and begin at an early age.

Alzheimers disease (AD), also referred to simply as Alzheimer's, is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and worsens over time. It is the cause of 60% to 70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events (short-term memory loss). [As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems with language, disorientation (including easily getting lost), mood swings, loss of motivation, not managing self-care, and behavioral issues. As a person's condition declines, they often withdraw from family and society.  Gradually, bodily functions are lost, ultimately leading to death.

The brain is body’s control center. It’s part of the nervous system, which also includes the spinal cord and a large network of nerves and neurons. Together, the nervous system controls everything from your five senses to the muscles throughout your body. When your brain is damaged, it can affect many different things, including your memory, your sensation, and even your personality. Brain disorders include any conditions or disabilities that affect your brain. This includes those conditions that are caused by illness, genetics, or traumatic injury.

Apathy, depression and anxiety are common conditions experienced by people with dementia. They are known as psychological conditions because they can affect a person’s emotional and mental health.

Anxiety is more than just feeling stressed or worried. Anxious feelings are a normal reaction to a situation where a person feels under pressure and usually pass once the stressful situation has passed, or the ‘stressor’ is removed. Depression affects how a person feels about themselves. A person may lose interest in work, hobbies and doing things he or she normally enjoys. Some people may lack energy, have difficulty sleeping or sleep more than usual, while some people feel anxious or irritable and find it hard to concentrate. 

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a chronic and progressive movement disorder, meaning that symptoms continue and worsen over time. Nearly one million people in the US are living with Parkinson's disease. The cause is unknown, and although there is presently no cure, there are treatment options such as medication and surgery to manage its symptoms.

Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that affects about one percent of the population. When schizophrenia is active, symptoms can include delusions, hallucinations, trouble with thinking and concentration, and lack of motivation. However, when these symptoms are treated, most people with schizophrenia will greatly improve over time.

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others. Autistic people see, hear and feel the world differently to other people. If you are autistic, you are autistic for life autism is not an illness or disease and cannot becured. Often people feel being autistic is a fundamental aspect of their identity. Autism is a spectrum condition. All autistic people share certain difficulties, but being autistic will affect them in different ways. Some autistic people also have learning disabilities, mental health issues or other conditions, meaning people need different levels of support. All people on the autism spectrum learn and develop. With the right sort of support, all can be helped to live a more fulfilling life of their own choosing.

Diagnosing dementia and determining what type it is can be challenging. A diagnosis of dementia requires that at least two core mental functions be impaired enough to interfere with daily living. They are memory, language skills, ability to focus and pay attention, ability to reason, solve problem and visual perception.

There is no cure for dementia, so the chief goals of treatment are to:

a. Maintains quality of life

b. Enhances cognition, mood and behavior

c. Fosters a safe environment

d. Promotes social engagement

Animal models have contributed noticeably to these advances and are an indispensable part in the evaluation of therapeutics. This review is an exhaustive study of animal models of dementia and cognitive dysfunction. A thorough and critical evaluation of current rodent models of dementia, and discussion about their role in drug discovery and development have been carried out.

Dementia is a progressive, irreversible decline in cognition that, by definition, impacts on a patient pre-existing level of functioning. The clinical syndrome of dementia has several aetiologias of which Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common. Drug development in AD is based on evolving pathophysiological theory. Disease modifying approaches include the targeting of amyloid processing, aggregation of tau, insulin signaling, neuroinflammation and neurotransmitter dysfunction, with efforts thus far yielding abandoned hopes and ongoing promise. Reflecting its dominance on the pathophysiological stage the amyloid cascade is central to many of the emerging drug therapies.

Epidemiological studies show that, worldwide, the number of people aged over 65 will increase substantially in the next decades and that a considerable proportion of this population will develop dementia.

1 Ample evidence shows that ageing is associated with a high rate of painful conditions, irrespective of cognitive status.

2 The number of patients with dementia who will experience painful conditions is therefore likely to increase.

The goal of much of the research activity in dementia is to develop interventions for 'treatment' or even 'cure'. The classical bench to bedside paradigm has been disappointing in dementia. There is a long list of putative dementia treatment compounds with favorable pre-clinical and early phase trial data that have been neutral or even potentially harmful when assessed in phase III studies. Lewy body dementia is a common but frequently underdiagnosed cause of dementia often mistaken for the more familiar entity of Alzheimer disease. Clinically the distinction is important, because it can have profound implications for management. The diagnosis of Lewy body dementia has important implications. It is associated with a high incidence of neuroleptic sensitivity, necessitating great caution in the use of these common antipsychotic agents. Early studies indicate cholinesterase inhibitors can be beneficial for treating the hallucinations and behavior disturbances that afflict these patients and might also improve cognition.