Tag: Athira Pharma

Athira Pharma has a clinical trial right now for patients that potentially could treat people with any type of degenerative brain disease. It is being tested now with people who have Alzheimer's disease in mid stages and also with people who have Lewy body disease and Parkinson's disease. The medication speeds up thinking and processing and a long-term effect of increasing connections between brain cells. Suzanne Newman talks with Dr. Michael Mega, Director of the Center for Cognitive Health in Portland, Oregon. The center helps patients maximize their cognitive function as they cope with Alzheimer's disease and disorders of thinking.

This segment focuses on medical diagnoses for Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body dementia and Parkinson's. The field is rapidly changing. We now have biological markers for Alzheimer's: mis-folded proteins in the brain is the common thread for all degenerative diseases, including Parkinson's disease, Lou Gehrig's disease, and frontotemporal degeneration Pick's Disease. Being able to visualize these in PET scans (Positron Emission Tomography) lets us make a definitive diagnosis 15 years before someone begins having memory problems.

Suzanne Newman is joined by Dr. Michael Mega, Director of the Center for Cognitive Health in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Mega answers: How do you tell the difference between normal age-related forgetfulness and the beginnings of Alzheimer's?

This segment focuses on misconceptions of clinical trials and who qualifies for the Lewy body dementia clinical trial. Dr. Daniel Burdick, a physician's investigator at Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland, Washington, covers these topics with Suzanne Newman.

This segment focuses on what doctors test in the Lewy body dementia clinical trial, as well as the importance of the study participant's care partner. Dr. Daniel Burdick walks Suzanne Newman through these aspects of the clinical trial. In the shape trial, doctors are looking at elements of safety and efficacy. Safety issues include studying bloodwork, physical exams, and checking things like changes in mood. The efficacy of the medication is studied by assessing the participant's cognition: the person's ability to remember, recall, fluidly use words, retain their focus and comprehension, and plan and follow events. They'll be asked to recall words and draw figures, and these are compared from the beginning to the end of the trial. Doctors also measure brain waves with EEG to get more objective data than they can from asking questions.

This segment focuses on what it means to be involved in the Lewy body dementia shape trial. Dr. Daniel Burdick, a physician's investigator at Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland, Washington walks Suzanne Newman through the process. Participating in a clinical trial is a donation of time to the global effort to develop better treatments for Parkinson's disease and Dementia with Lewy Bodies. It can be involved. This particular trial is a 6-8 month process with 9 or 10 visits to the Kirkland site, one every 4-6 weeks, each one a couple to several hours each, with doctors spending lots of time with them. Doctors ask detailed questions and get to know their experiences in much greater detail, and people have said that it's a positive experience because they feel really connected. A research coordinator becomes their navigator through the trial.

Dr. Daniel Burdick from the Evergreen Hospital Medical Center in Kirkland, Washington, joins Suzanne to talk about Lewy body dementia. It encompasses two separate disorders: Parkinson's dementia and Dementia with Lewy Bodies, which are very similar. One of the best ways to make your future better, if you have dementia, if you want to be proactive with the disease, is to volunteer in a clinical trial.

Learn about the different types of Alzheimer's research studies, what's involved in participating, and how you can get involved. Suzanne Newman joins Dr. Cherian Verghese, Principal Researcher at the forefront of Alzheimer's disease at Keystone Clinical Studies LLC in the Philadelphia area. When we face cancer or heart disease, we think our bodies are failing. When it comes to something in our minds, we think we are failing, as something personal, but our mind sits within our brain, and these are illnesses, just like cancer or COVID. In the old days, there was a sense of learned helplessness — I can't do anything about it, so why bother? — but that's not the case any more.

Learn about the types of Alzheimer's research studies and what's involved in participating. Suzanne Newman joins Dr. Cherian Verghese, Principal Researcher at the forefront of Alzheimer's disease at Keystone Clinical Studies LLC in the Philadelphia area. In the phase of informed consent, participants and trial partners are appraised on details about the medicine, that it’s voluntary, outlines potential side effects, not charged to insurance, that participants can withdraw at any time, and that they can also talk to the ethics committee at any time. A trial partner spends time with the participant, a family member, friend, or neighbor — conducting the study needs someone who can tell us about how the participant functions at home with their activities of daily living.

This segment continues the conversation about how Alzheimer's disease progresses. Suzanne Newman joins Dr. Cherian Verghese to talk about a special program for those who are in the beginning or medium stages of Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Verghese is Principal Researcher at Keystone Clinical Studies LLC in the Philadelphia area. In earlier stages, people can be helped at home with assisted living, with family support. Going into moderate or severe dementia, we'd need in-home care and at some stages institutional care. It's physically demanding to help someone with their activities of daily living. Sadly, African Americans are twice as likely, and Latinos about one and a half times as likely, than in Caucasians. They are disproportionately affected, but participation was lower in trials, making it hard to extrapolate drug trial results.