Research and Clinical Practice: Sex Differences in Dementia

apa-logo_white_screenThe International Neuropsychological Society is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The International Neuropsychological Society maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
Educational Objectives
  1. Identify the major sex differences in Alzheimer’s disease, from clinical expression, to biomarkers, and other risk factors​​​​​​​​
  2. Observe the influence of sex as a moderator of the relationship between AD pathology/biomarkers and cognitive outcome
  3. Learn the nuances of resilience vs vulnerability as a lens through which one can interpret sex differences in Alzheimer’s disease risk
  4. Learn about preliminary evidence for sex differences in Frontotemporal dementia and Lewy body disease

Course Information
Target Audience:Intermediate
Availability:Date Available: 2021-04-13
You may obtain CE for this webinar at any time.
Offered for CEYes
CostMembers $20
Non-Members $30
Refund PolicyThis webinar is not eligible for refunds
CE Credits1.0

Abstract
Sex and gender differences have become increasingly recognized across the dementias in recent years. In this webinar, Dr. Rachel Buckley will review current evidence for sex differences in Alzheimer’s disease risk across the measurement spectrum – from epidemiological evidence to clinical phenotypes and biological markers. Further, she will discuss the question of whether these sex differences underlie a story of resilience or vulnerability from the perspective of sex hormones, genomics, vascular contributions and immune pathways. In the second half of the webinar, Dr. Sarah Banks will discuss how to translate the latest research in sex and gender differences into every day clinical practice. She will highlight recent findings in common diseases which cause dementia including AD, FTD and LBD and provide suggestions of how we can incorporate these considerations into patient care to facilitate accurate diagnosis.

References
  1. Neu, S. C., Pa, J., Kukull, W., Beekly, D., Kuzma, A., Gangadharan, P., ... & Toga, A. W. (2017). Apolipoprotein E genotype and sex risk factors for Alzheimer disease: a meta-analysis. JAMA neurology, 74(10), 1178-1189.
  2. Pereira, J. B., Harrison, T. M., La Joie, R., Baker, S. L., & Jagust, W. J. (2020). Spatial patterns of tau deposition are associated with amyloid, ApoE, sex, and cognitive decline in older adults. European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, 1-10.
  3. Smith, R., Strandberg, O., Mattsson-Carlgren, N., Leuzy, A., Palmqvist, S., Pontecorvo, M. J., ... & Hansson, O. (2020). The accumulation rate of tau aggregates is higher in females and younger amyloid-positive subjects. Brain, 143(12), 3805-3815.
  4. Illán‐Gala, I., Casaletto, K. B., Borrego‐Écija, S., Arenaza‐Urquijo, E. M., Wolf, A., Cobigo, Y., ... & Rosen, H. J. (2021). Sex differences in the behavioral variant of frontotemporal dementia: A new window to executive and behavioral reserve. Alzheimer's & Dementia.
  5. Bayram, E., Coughlin, D. G., Banks, S. J., & Litvan, I. (2021). Sex differences for phenotype in pathologically defined dementia with Lewy bodies. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.
  6. Sundermann, E. E., Maki, P., Biegon, A., Lipton, R. B., Mielke, M. M., Machulda, M., ... & Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. (2019). Sex-specific norms for verbal memory tests may improve diagnostic accuracy of amnestic MCI. Neurology, 93(20), e1881-e1889.​​​​​​​

Disclosures
None

Author(s)
  • Dr. Rachel Buckley is an NIH-NIA K99/R00 Pathway to Independence award recipient, and holds a Faculty position of Instructor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She also maintains Australian affiliations with the University of Melbourne (Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences and Florey Institutes) and Monash University. Dr. Buckley has published various studies on sex differences in positron emission tomography markers of amyloid and tau and their subsequent influence on cognitive decline, and also on sex differences in AD-dementia mortality rates in Australia at a population level. Her more recent research focus is on the influence of sex to moderate longitudinal changes in AD-related markers and the impact of sex hormones to drive these differences in midlife.
  • Dr. Sarah Banks is a board-certified neuropsychologist and Associate Professor of Neurosciences and Psychiatry at University of California, San Diego. She also directs the neuropsychology program of the Center for Brain Health and Memory Disorders at UCSD. Previously, she led a similar program at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. She completed her clinical psychology PhD in the neuropsychology track at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine program. During her time there, she worked on a Women’s Health Initiative ancillary study and became interested in sex specific risk factors for AD. She went to the Montreal Neurological Institute for her postdoctoral fellowship where she continued to work on fMRI studies of memory, and learned about sex differences in modality specific memory functions. At the Cleveland Clinic, she continued her sex difference research, along with her colleague Dr. Jessica Caldwell. Sex difference are central to her research at UCSD, and she holds NIA, Alzheimer’s Association and California Department of Health funding for her research. She works closely with many collaborators, including Dr. Erin Sundermann with whom she co-leads the Women: Inflammation and Tau Study. On the side, she attempts to raise male humans, female dogs and male cats.

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