Circadian Dysfunction Precedes Cognitive Changes in Patients With Preclinical Alzheimer ’s Disease

People with Alzheimer ’s disease (AD) tend to experience significantly fragmented sleep patterns that suggest underlying problems with their circadian clocks. Astudy published today inJAMA Neurology suggests that these changes in sleep patterns begin long before people show cognitive symptoms of AD.“Our findings suggest that circadian dysfunction could contribute to the earliest stages of AD pathogenesis, and that understanding this association could open the door to new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies,” wrote lead author Erik Musiek, M.D., Ph.D., of Washington University School of M edicine and colleagues.Musiek and colleagues assessed 189 cognitively normal older adults who were participating in longitudinal studies of memory and aging at the Washington University Knight Alzheimer ’s Disease Research Center. The participants were all given wrist activity monitors, which measured a range of sleep parameters for 7 to 14 days. The participants also underwent amyloid beta imaging and had cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analyzed to determine if they had preclinical AD (Previous studie s have shown that amyloid plaque pathology in the brain precedes symptomatic cognitive impairment by 15 to 20 years). Of the 189 participants in the study, 139 were amyloid negative.The authors found that several measures of sleep disturbances were associated with positive amyloid status, even after factoring in sleep problems associated with older age.“Among the several circadian endpoin...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: Alzheimer's disease amyloid beta amyloid plaques circadian rhythm Erik Musiek sleep disturbance sleep problems Source Type: research