Research Opportunities

The study is testing the feasibility of treating chronic pain with yoga delivered via the internet for people with Alzheimer’s disease. A caregiver must also enroll in the study and practice yoga at the same time as their loved one. Chronic pain is treatment-resistant, and medications include the risk of addiction or overdose. Yoga can provide effective treatment for pain, as well as some of the other common health problems in Alzheimer’s disease such as sleep and depression. It may also offer some relief for the stress of caregiving. Yoga is endorsed by the NIH, the American College of Physicians, and the VA. One of the challenges of providing yoga is the cost of classes, lack of transportation or time, reliance on caregivers, health conditions, and family responsibilities. To overcome these barriers to practicing yoga, the study is offering no-cost at-home yoga via the web.

Curious about your sleep?

You may have an opportunity to participate in groundbreaking research examining sleep and measures of brain oxygen levels simultaneously.

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School is looking for healthy individuals with or without sleep disordered breathing, 60+ years old who are interested in participating in two appointments that will help us understand blood oxygen levels of the brain during sleep.

Purpose: To examine sleep and measures of brain oxygen levels simultaneously.

• $200 payment offered to subjects

Time needed from participants:

• You are expected to spend 6-8 hours of active participation
• You will be asked to travel to Stanford to complete some questionnaires lasting 2-3 hours.
• You will also be asked to complete one sleep assessment (polysomnography)

To qualify, you must:

Be healthy with or without sleep disordered breathing,

• Be age 60 or older

Coordinator Contact: 650-723-2795 

You are invited by Dr. Cheng at the Palo Alto VA to participate in a research study to see if repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) can help memory and thinking (cognition).  You may be a good fit for this study if: 1) you have dementia or mild cognitive impairment; and 2) you are a Veteran.  rTMS uses magnets to stimulate the brain. 

The team will review your medical history and medications; you will have memory testing and a blood draw.   Those who are eligible will receive 20 study treatments.  The treatments will be active TMS or sham (blank or placebo) treatments.  Treatments last 20 minutes each and are done in the clinic over 2-4 weeks.  All people who get the sham will be offered active rTMS treatments at the end of the study.  There is also a 4 month follow-up visit.

For more information, please call: 650-496-2578 or see study flyer and brochure.

The UC Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center has a number of clinical research studies that explore cognitive and functional change, caregiving, and clinical trials of new therapeutic agents. For more information on studies that are open for enrollment, click here.

This study evaluates the effectiveness of routine clinical treatment of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.  Individuals treated with FDA-approved anti-Alzheimer’s medications such as Aricept, Exelon, Reminyl, and Namenda as well as those who are not treated with these medications are included. Recruitment for the study is now closed. Current publications are available below and additional manuscript preparation is underway. 

Disease progression in AD leads to increased dependence, depression, caregiver stress, and institutionalization. The emotional and financial burdens to both patients and their families are high. While there is evidence linking different support interventions to delayed institutionalization, information systematically documenting how often these services are used, levels of unmet needs, and perceived barriers to their use and their influence on patient rate of decline and institutionalization is limited. The objective of this collaborative project is to determine:

• The prevalence of Day Care and Support Group use among California Alzheimer's Disease Center (CADC) subjects diagnosed with AD and their caregivers.
• Factors associated with Day Care and Support Group participation among CADC subjects diagnosed with AD and their caregivers.
• If regular participation in these programs slows rate of cognitive decline and delays institutionalization.

Recruitment for this study is closed. Data analysis and manuscript preparation are in progress.

The Mobile TEACHing project studies the effects of an education and skill-building rehabilitation (ESBR) intervention, designed to be low-cost and clinically translatable through direct-to-home video telehealth, on family caregivers of Veterans with dementia.

Call for more info: 650-849-0481 

Ultimately, dementia will have a large impact on quality of life in Veterans and families, lead to expensive nursing home placement, and decrease life expectancy for patients and family caregivers. To address the high burden of caring for a Veteran with dementia, The VA CARES project studies the effects of an education and skill-building rehabilitation (ESBR) intervention on family caregivers of Veterans with dementia. Our novel approach will use video technology that can reach caregivers in rural areas who do not have easy access to major VA medical centers.