The therapeutic potential of exercise to improve mood, cognition, and sleep in Parkinson's disease

Published in final edited form as: Mov Disord. 2016 January ; 31(1): 23–38. doi:10.1002/mds.26484.In addition to the classic motor symptoms, Parkinson's disease (PD) is associated with a variety of nonmotor symptoms that significantly reduce quality of life, even in the early stages of the disease. There is an urgent need to develop evidence‐based treatments for these symptoms, which include mood disturbances, cognitive dysfunction, and sleep disruption. We focus here on exercise interventions, which have been used to improve mood, cognition, and sleep in healthy older adults and clinical populations, but to date have primarily targeted motor symptoms in PD. We synthesize the existing literature on the benefits of aerobic exercise and strength training on mood, sleep, and cognition as demonstrated in healthy older adults and adults with PD, and suggest that these types of exercise offer a feasible and promising adjunct treatment for mood, cognition, and sleep difficulties in PD. Across stages of the disease, exercise interventions represent a treatment strategy with the unique ability to improve a range of nonmotor symptoms while also alleviating the classic motor symptoms of the disease. Future research in PD should include nonmotor outcomes in exercise trials with the goal of developing evidence‐based exercise interventions as a safe, broad‐spectrum treatment approach to improve mood, cognition, and sleep for individuals with PD.This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (F31MH102961 to G.O.R.)

Analysis of Sociodemographic and Psychological Variables Involved in Sleep Quality in Nurses

Background: Sleep quality is related to health and quality of life and can lead to the development of related disorders. This study analyzed the sociodemographic and psychological factors related to sleep quality in nurses. Methods: The sample comprised 1094 nurses who were assessed according to the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Rosenberg Self-esteem Questionnaire, the Goal Content for Exercise Questionnaire, the Brief Emotional Intelligence Inventory, and the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-R18. Results: The results confirm the impacts of diet, motivation for physical exercise, emotional intelligence, and overall self-esteem on sleep quality in nurses. Conclusions: Sleep quality in healthcare professionals is vitally important for performance at work; therefore, appropriate strategies should be applied to improve it

Addendum to Informatics for Health 2017: Advancing both science and practice

This article presents presentation and poster abstracts that were mistakenly omitted from the original publication

Use of nonintrusive sensor-based information and communication technology for real-world evidence for clinical trials in dementia

Cognitive function is an important end point of treatments in dementia clinical trials. Measuring cognitive function by standardized tests, however, is biased toward highly constrained environments (such as hospitals) in selected samples. Patient-powered real-world evidence using information and communication technology devices, including environmental and wearable sensors, may help to overcome these limitations. This position paper describes current and novel information and communication technology devices and algorithms to monitor behavior and function in people with prodromal and manifest stages of dementia continuously, and discusses clinical, technological, ethical, regulatory, and user-centered requirements for collecting real-world evidence in future randomized controlled trials. Challenges of data safety, quality, and privacy and regulatory requirements need to be addressed by future smart sensor technologies. When these requirements are satisfied, these technologies will provide access to truly user relevant outcomes and broader cohorts of participants than currently sampled in clinical trials

Sleep quality in nurses working in different shifts

The nursing staff who are working at hospitals with a shift-work scheduling might confront with sleep disorders related to the characteristics of nursing profession. The results of studies have ruled out the close relationship between life quality and health. It must be mentioned that the quality of life is affected by sleep pattern. The aim of this study was investigating sleep quality in nurses working in different shifts at hospitals affiliated to Zahedan University of Medical Sciences. A cross sectional study was conducted on 299 nurses who were working at general hospitals of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in 2008. Pittsburgh sleep quality index was utilized to collect data. The data were analyzed in SPSS version 17. susing Mann-Whitney, Kruskal Wallis tests and Spearman correlation coefficient. The subjects were consist of 66 men (22.1%) and 233 women (77.9%) whit age mean 31.6± 6.6 years. The mean of work experience was 7.55± 6.8 years. The findings of study showed that sleep quality were suitable in only 55(17.1%) of nurses but 221(73.9%) of nurses have not sleepiness. The quality of life was high among only 32(10.7%) of nurses. In this study, quality of life has a relationship with sleep quality (P=.001, r=-.572) and sleepiness (P=.001, r=-.246). The sleep quality was related with gender, age, monthly income, disease, marital status and type of insurance. Also, the sleepiness was related to marital status and life quality was related to monthly income, disease, marital status and type of insurance P<0.05). This study showed that sleep quality is not suitable among nurses. Also, in this study the sleep pattern was related to quality of life, so lack of enough and suitable sleep will affected the quality of life, in turn, provided health care by nurses to patients and attendance would not be fair. Correcting and modification the sleep quality among nurses is very important. © 2015

Differences in the Experience of Caregiving Between Spouse and Adult Child Caregivers in Dementia With Lewy Bodies.

Background and objectivesDementia caregiving has been associated with increased burden, depression, grief, a decreased sense of well-being and quality of life, and a weakening of social support. Little is known about the experience of caregiving in Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB). The present study examines differences in the caregiving experience of spouse versus adult child caregivers of individuals with DLB.Research design and methodsIn this cross-sectional analytic study of spouses (n = 255) and adult children (n = 160) caregivers of individuals with DLB, participants completed an online survey of burden, grief, depression, well-being, quality of life, and social support.ResultsAdult child caregivers were more likely to care for women (p &lt; .001) and see the care recipient less often (p &lt; .001) than spouses. Adult child caregivers reported lower quality of life (p &lt; .001) and more caregiver burden (p &lt; .009), but also greater social support (p &lt; .001) than spouses. Between group analyses of caregiver type by disease severity demonstrated that spousal caregivers experience greater grief with advancing disease (p = .005), while adult child caregivers increase social support with advancing disease (p &lt; .001).Discussion and implicationsSpouses and adult children experience DLB caregiving differently. This was explained by the younger age of the adult child caregiver, frequency of contact with the care recipient, and differences in the care recipient's characteristics, frequency of neuropsychiatric symptoms, and disease severity. DLB caregiver support for this population should target psychoeducation for complicated neuropsychiatric symptoms in the care recipient. Screening all DLB caregivers for burden, grief, and depression is suggested to identify those that may benefit most from intervention. Spouses specifically may benefit from interventions that target increasing social support, while adult child caregivers may benefit from interventions aimed at mitigating burden and improving quality of life

Late-life depression : issues for the general practitioner

Late-life depression (LLD) is both a prevalent and life-threatening disorder, affecting up to 13.3% of the elderly population. LLD can be difficult to identify because patients mainly consult their general practitioner (GP) for somatic complaints. Moreover, patients may be hesitant to express the problem to their GP. Increased vigilance on the part of the GP can only benefit older people with depression. To recognize the risk of LLD, screening tools are provided in addition to treatment options for LLD. This review aims to provide the GP with guidance in recognizing and treating LLD. It tries to connect mainstream etiologies of LLD (e.g., vascular, inflammation, hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis) with risk factors and current therapies. Therefore, we provide a basis to the GP for decision-making when choosing an appropriate therapy for LLD