02 Apr 2009

Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI), the London-based international federation of 77 Alzheimer’s associations, and the Fondation Médéric Alzheimer have presented the first global award for psychosocial research in Alzheimer’s and dementia to Mary Mittelman of New York University Langone Medical Center. Psychosocial research draws less attention than mechanistic and drug discovery research for these diseases, though with more support and broader implementation, it may well have a bigger impact on the quality of life of patients and caregivers in the short term. Mittelman received the award on 27 March at the 24th Conference of Alzheimer’s Disease International in Singapore.

Mittelman studies evidence-based, multi-pronged interventions for people with dementia and their caregivers. She applies randomized controlled study designs to evaluate interventions involving caregiver training, social networks, and individualized counseling over the duration of disease. Her work has found that such interventions not only delay nursing home placement by 18 months, but also improve the experience of caregivers along the way (Drentea et al., 2006; Mittelman et al., 2008). A second award, to Daniel George, a Ph.D. student at Oxford University, U.K., recognized his work on intergenerational volunteering. For more information on these investigators, see ADI press release.—Gabrielle Strobel.