Nearly 40% of care home residents who are living with dementia also have symptoms of disturbed sleep. However, the impact of these disturbances is relatively unknown and is needed to indicate whether interventions are warranted; therefore, we aimed to investigate the impact.

One-to-one semi-structured interviews.

Four UK care homes.

We interviewed 18 nurses and care assistants about residents with sleep disturbances.

We used a topic guide to explore staff experience of sleep disturbance in residents with dementia. The interviews were audio recorded and transcribed and then analyzed thematically by two researchers independently.

Staff described that sleep disturbances in most, but not all, residents impacted negatively on the resident, other residents, staff, and relatives. Residents became more irritable or agitated if they had slept badly. They slept in the daytime after a bad night, which then increased their chances of being awake the following night. For some, being sleepy in the day led to falls, missing medication, drinks, and meals. Staff perceived hypnotics as having low efficacy, but increasing the risk of falls and drowsiness. Other residents were disturbed by noise, and staff described stress when several residents had sleep disturbance. Some of the strategies reported by staff to deal with sleep disturbances such as feeding or providing caffeinated tea at night might be counterproductive.

Sleep disturbances in care home residents living with dementia negatively affect their physical and psychological well-being. These disturbances also disturb other residents and increase stress in staff.

At present, we do not have any biological tests which can contribute towards a diagnosis of depression. Neuroimaging measures have shown some potential as biomarkers for diagnosis. However, participants have generally been from the same ethnic background while the applicability of a biomarker would require replication in individuals of diverse ethnicities.

We sought to examine the diagnostic potential of the structural neuroanatomy of depression in a sample of a wide ethnic diversity.

Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were obtained from 23 patients with major depressive disorder in an acute depressive episode (mean age: 39.8 years) and 20 matched healthy volunteers (mean age: 38.8 years). Participants were of Asian, African and Caucasian ethnicity recruited from the general community.

Structural neuroanatomy combining white and grey matter distinguished patients from controls at the highest accuracy of 81% with the most stable pattern being at around 70%. A widespread network encompassing frontal, parietal, occipital and cerebellar regions contributed towards diagnostic classification.

These findings provide an important step in the development of potential neuroimaging-based tools for diagnosis as they demonstrate that the identification of depression is feasible within a multi-ethnic group from the community.

Use of antipsychotics to treat behavioural symptoms of dementia has been associated with increased risks of mortality and stroke. Little is known about individual patient characteristics that might be associated with bad or good outcomes.

We examined the risperidone clinical trial data to look for individual patient characteristics associated with these adverse outcomes.

Data from all double-blind randomised controlled trials of risperidone in dementia patients (risperidone n = 1009, placebo n = 712) were included. Associations between characteristics and outcome were analysed based on crude incidences and exposure-adjusted incidence rates, and by time-to-event analyses using Cox proportional hazards regression. Interactions between treatment (risperidone or placebo) and characteristic were analysed with a Cox proportional hazards regression model with main effects for treatment and characteristic in addition to the interaction term.

Baseline complications of depression (treatment by risk factor interaction on cerebrovascular adverse event (CVAE) hazard ratio (HR): P = 0.025) and delusions (P = 0.043) were associated with a lower relative risk of CVAE in risperidone-treated patients (HR = 1.47 and 0.54, respectively) compared to not having the complication (HR = 5.88 and 4.16). For mortality, the only significant baseline predictor in patients treated with risperidone was depression, which was associated with a lower relative risk (P<0.001). The relative risk of mortality was increased in risperidone patients treated with anti-inflammatory medications (P = 0.021).

Only anti-inflammatory medications increased mortality risk with risperidone. The reduced risks of CVAE in patients with comorbid depression and delusions, and of mortality with depression, may have clinical implications when weighing the benefits and risks of treatment with risperidone in patients with dementia.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) Val66Met polymorphism contributes to the development of depression (major depressive disorder, MDD), but it is unclear whether neural effects observed in healthy individuals are sustained in MDD.

To investigate BDNF Val66Met effects on key regions in MDD neurocircuitry: amygdala, anterior cingulate, middle frontal and orbitofrontal regions.

Magnetic resonance imaging scans were acquired in 79 persons with MDD (mean age 49 years) and 74 healthy volunteers (mean age 50 years). Effects on surface area and cortical thickness were examined with multiple comparison correction.

People who were Met allele carriers showed reduced caudal middle frontal thickness in both study groups. Significant interaction effects were found in the anterior cingulate and rostral middle frontal regions, in which participants in the MDD group who were Met carriers showed the greatest reduction in surface area.

Modulatory effects of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism on distinct subregions in the prefrontal cortex in MDD support the neurotrophin model of depression.