DREAMS Study v1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Determining Risk Early in Alzheimer’s utilising tests of Memory and Sleep (DREAMS) Study
IRAS ID
288224
Contact name
E Coulthard
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bristol
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
There are estimated to be 850000 people living with dementia in the UK alone where it is recognised as the leading cause of death. Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia accounting for approximately two thirds of all cases in the UK.
It is increasingly well understood that the changes within the brain associated with Alzheimer’s Disease predate the onset of symptoms of dementia by 20 years or more. Treatments attempting to slow down or stop symptoms from worsening have been disappointing. The most promising future strategy will therefore be to try and intervene early before damage builds up.
One particular area of interest is sleep and its relationship with cognitive symptoms and also proteins found within cerebrospinal fluid (the fluid which surrounds the brain). Patients frequently undergo sampling of this fluid (CSF Biomarker Analysis) to aid in early accurate diagnosis of AD as levels of specific proteins including beta-amyloid and tau are highly predictive.
This study is designed to improve understanding of this relationship in a real world population of people referred to and followed-up within the North Bristol NHS Trust Cognitive Disorders Clinic. It proposes to ask patients attending clinic for their consent to use their anonymised data collected as part of their usual clinical care to be added to a specific research database.
This database would be used to improve understanding of how effective CSF biomarkers and measures of sleep disturbance are in predicting the speed of future cognitive problems and also whether disrupted sleep predicts abnormal results.Ultimately, in answering these questions, it may be possible to improve disease models to allow for more accurate and timely diagnosis of people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease.
REC name
South West - Frenchay Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/SW/0058
Date of REC Opinion
27 May 2021
REC opinion
Unfavourable Opinion