Non-Pharmacological Interventions: Research agenda development

Convene an advisory meeting to delineate an interdisciplinary research agenda focused on:

  • advancing non-pharmacological interventions for the cognitive and behavioral symptoms of AD and AD-related dementias by non- pharmacological treatments,
  • informing the design of therapeutic approaches combining pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatments and
  • identification of best practices for implementation of non-pharmacological interventions.
  • develop culturally sensitive guidelines for social and behavioral interventions for AD and ADRD prevention to inform study design, cohort selection, intervention delivery and dosing, and outcomes assessments.
  • incentivize efforts to increase harmonization of protocols across studies to enhance research rigor and reproducibility.

2021 8.A Achieved Convene an advisory meeting to delineate an interdisciplinary research agenda focused on: advancing non-pharmacological interventions for the cognitive and behavioral symptoms... DN 2012 AD Summit: 5B, 5C, 5D, and 5F 2017 Dementia Care Summit: 4.1 and 4.2 2018 AD Summit: 5L Workshop: Understanding Pathways to Successful Aging: Behavioral and Social Factors Related to Alzheimer's Disease. Blog: Exploring the unexpected: What can we learn from lucidity in dementia? Workshop: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Expert Meeting—Incorporating the Experimental Medicine Approach in the Development of Primary Prevention Trials for Alzheimer’s disease. Workshop: Music as Medicine: The Science and Clinical Practice Workshop: Cognitive Training for Older Adults Non-Pharmacological Interventions Care Interventions for People With Dementia (PWD) and Their Caregivers Decadal Survey of Behavioral and Social Research on Alzheimer’s Disease-Related Dementias IMPACT Collaboratory Emory Roybal Center Webinar: NIH Stage Model of Intervention Development

National Research Summit on Care, Services and Supports for Persons with Dementia and Their Caregivers. 2016

  • Convene an advisory meeting that brings together social/behavioral research scientists with clinical trial and data science experts and patient advocates from diverse communities to formulate culturally sensitive guidelines for social and behavioral interventions for AD /ADRD prevention needed for study design, cohort selection, intervention delivery and dosing, and establishing meaningful outcomes.
  • Recommendations developed for advancing non-pharmacological interventions for AD and ADRD treatment and prevention to enable successful implementation of effective non-pharmacological interventions.
  • Provide support for the harmonization of protocols across social and behavioral intervention trials.

Summary of Key Accomplishments

On May 24-25, 2021, NIA convened an expert workshop to review behavioral and social (non-pharmacological) approaches for early prevention of AD/ADRD. The goal of this workshop was to address the core challenges associated with developing preventive lifestyle and behavioral interventions in midlife for AD/ADRD with respect to populations, targets, and outcomes. Participants identified several research opportunities to address the field’s needs, which NIA is using to inform priorities.

NIA supports NIH Toolbox and M2C2 Mobile Toolbox measures to promote use of the same protocols for assessing cognitive function across social and behavioral intervention trials so that results are comparable.

The key accomplishments summary is current as of March 2022.