Health Professions Research

In order to keep up-to-date with advances in health care services, health care professional are increasingly required to read and analyze vast amounts of new research. Moreover, healthcare professional are required to take part in research activities themselves. With this in mind, students will be introduced to Health Professions Research, in particular, literature review, process of literature review, how to conduct literature review using electronic data base, etc.

This assignment will provide students the opportunity to carry out a literature search on any topic of their choice. Students can use this opportunity to pursue their research interests and it may be useful to choose a topic relevant to your chosen studies/profession. The requirements of the assignment are as follows: 

Each student will submit a literature review of approximately 2 pages in length. This does not include the reference section.

The literature review must be limited to research in the last 15 years of publications.

Each literature review must contain at least four (4) key search terms, (e.g., depression, adults, Saudi Arabia, treatment). The search could be single or a combination of terms, but does not have to have all 4 terms simultaneously. For example, key search term(s) could be, ‘depression’ or a combinations of key terms, ‘depression and Saudi Arabia’, Adult depression’, ‘depression and treatment’ etc.

Once you have completed your key search using the electronic data base, summarize your findings in the two page assignment.

Please use prose form (i.e., written language that show a grammatical structure and natural flow of speech) for the assignment.

Present the information as an introduction section of a journal article, using a funnel approach, starting with the general view and condensing the information to the specific view/gap in research.

Use the Vancouver style for references.

Once you have completed the assignment, upload it to the Blackboard through the SafeAssign program.

The assignment has a simple marking format:

o Completed assignment uploaded prior to the deadline will receive full marks, 20% weighting of final grade.

o If you fail to upload your assignment, you will receive a 0 mark.

o Any assignment showing plagiarism over 30% (excluding references) will be penalized 50% of the mark. Plagiarism includes submitting a paper done by another student (for this course or another course) or submitting your own work from another course. 

Please refer to the block coordinator for any queries or further questions.

after this time, so be sure to submit your assignments early.

Treatment of Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder where patients present with memory impairment, executive dysfunction, visuospatial impairment and behavioral disturbances (Farina et. al., 2017). One mechanism involved in the pathogenesis of AD is destruction of neurons through oxidation by free radicals (Farina et. al.,2017), accumulation of Tau proteins in the central nervous system (Galasko et. al., 2012) and inflammation (Jaturapatporn  et. al., 2012). Though there are advances in medicine and understanding of this disease, AD still continues to be incurable. The goal of treatment of patients with AD is only palliative or symptomatic (Galasko et. al., 2012). Treatments vary from formulated drugs, antioxidants, cognitive stimulation or a combination of these. These treatments have different mechanisms of action, but it is critical to study its effectiveness on patients with AD. Some studies prove the effectiveness and some disprove the effectiveness of the mode of treatment.  According to a meta-analysis done Chen et. al., (2017) where the researchers compared the effects of donepezil against memantine plus donepezil, the combination of donepezil and memantine is more effective and results to more improvement in patients with AD than donepezil alone. Another study done by Farina et. al. (2017) hypothesized that Vitamin E can help in the cognition of patients with AD suffering from mild cognitive impairment since vitamin E is an antioxidant which scavenge free radicals. Free radicals are known to contribute to neuronal degeneration in AD. Because of this Vitamin E is said to be protective against neuronal degeneration and cognitive impairment; however, upon further studying, the researchers found no evidence that vitamin E neither reverse AD nor prevent the progression of the disease. A combination of vitamin E, vitamin C, alpha-lipoic acid and coenzyme Q was also tested against a placebo since the four antioxidants are synergistic and was said to produce beneficial outcomes when given together. The study used cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker, Mini-Mental State Examination and Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study Activities of Daily Living Scale to measure outcomes. After studying the seventy-eight subjects in the clinical trial, the authors concluded that the combination of antioxidants did not influence the CSF biomarkers and there is no significant changes with the baseline scores of Mini-Mental State Examination and Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study Activities of Daily Living Scale. (Galasko et. al., 2012). Some drugs such as aspirin, steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs aim at reducing inflammatory processes in patient’s with AD. This review done by Jaturapatporn et. al., (2012), where the three classes of drugs are compared to one other and a placebo, concluded that the drugs cannot be recommended for the treatment of AD since the effectiveness is not proven. Cognitive stimulation  was also tested on patients with AD. In this research by Woods et. al. (2012), patients are given a set of enjoyable activities that stimulate executive function, concentration and memory. It was already proven, according to the authors that lack of cognitive stimulation precipitate the cognitive decline. Cognitive stimulation in the study was said to be consistent in producing beneficial results in patients with mild to moderate dementia; however, this research was not able to state if the benefit is only for short term or if there are any long term effects.

There are several mechanisms involved in producing the symptoms of AD that could be exploited by different treatment modalities. As of now, this literature review can confirm the effectiveness of the combination of memantine and donepezil and cognitive stimulation on patients with AD.

*search terms: Adult; Alzheimer’s disease; Treatment; Cognition

Chen, R., Chan, P.-T., Chu, H., Lin, Y.-C., Chang, P.-C., Chen, C.-Y., & Chou, K.-R. (2017). Treatment effects between monotherapy of donepezil versus combination with memantine for Alzheimer disease: A meta-analysis. PLoS ONE, 12(8), e0183586. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183586

Farina, N., Llewellyn, D., Isaac, M. G., & Tabet, N. (2017). Vitamin E for Alzheimer's dementia and mild cognitive impairment. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 1, Cd002854. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD002854.pub4

Galasko, D. R., Peskind, E., Clark, C. M., & et al. (2012). Antioxidants for alzheimer disease: A randomized clinical trial with cerebrospinal fluid biomarker measures. Arch Neurol, 69(7), 836-841. doi: 10.1001/archneurol.2012.85

Jaturapatporn, D., Isaac, M. G., McCleery, J., & Tabet, N. (2012). Aspirin, steroidal and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev(2), Cd006378. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD006378.pub2

Woods, B., Aguirre, E., Spector, A. E., & Orrell, M. (2012). Cognitive stimulation to improve cognitive functioning in people with dementia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev(2), Cd005562. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD005562.pub2