Brain & Memory
Why sleep changes after 60, and which changes are worth treating
Waking at four in the morning is not necessarily insomnia, and treating it as though it were is how a lot of older people end up on drugs that make them fall over.
Brain & Memory
Cognition, sleep and what the evidence actually supports.
Brain & Memory
What actually protects memory: separating the evidence from the marketing
The supplement industry has produced a great deal of confident advertising about brain health and remarkably little convincing data. The interventions with real evidence behind them are duller, cheaper and harder.
Brain & Memory
Normal forgetting, mild cognitive impairment, or dementia: how the line is drawn
Losing your keys is not a symptom. Losing the ability to work out what keys are for is a different matter. The clinical distinction rests on function, not on how often you forget.
Brain & Memory
Delirium in hospital: the complication nobody warns families about
A third of older patients on a general medical ward develop acute confusion. It is largely preventable, frequently missed, and it is not simply a bad night that resolves on discharge.
Brain & Memory
Depression in later life often does not look like sadness
It presents as physical complaints, cognitive slowing and loss of interest rather than low mood, which is why it is under-diagnosed, under-treated and frequently mistaken for dementia or simply for ageing.
Brain & Memory
Stroke and TIA: the symptoms, and why a warning that resolves is still an emergency
A transient ischaemic attack resolves within an hour and carries a stroke risk of several per cent within the following two days. It is the one neurological symptom you should never wait out.
Brain & Memory
Early Parkinson's signs that appear years before the tremor
Loss of smell, acting out dreams and stubborn constipation can precede the movement symptoms by a decade. That prodrome is now one of the most active areas in neurology.
Brain & Memory
Sleep apnoea in older adults: commoner than diagnosed, and often missed entirely
The classic patient is imagined as an overweight middle-aged man who snores. A substantial share of undiagnosed cases are thin older women whose only complaint is fatigue and poor concentration.
Brain & Memory
Cognitive reserve: why two people with the same brain pathology can look completely different
Post-mortem studies keep finding substantial Alzheimer's pathology in people who were cognitively intact when they died. The concept built to explain that has practical implications.
Brain & Memory
Tinnitus: what is actually happening, and what genuinely helps
It is generated by the brain rather than the ear, there is no cure, and the treatments with real evidence target distress and attention rather than the sound itself. That is more useful than it sounds.
Brain & Memory
Anxiety in later life is common and rarely treated
It presents as physical symptoms and as worry about health, it is frequently written off as a personality trait, and it responds to treatment about as well as it does at any other age.