Firstly we’d like to say a big thank you to those of you working on the clinical ‘front lines’ of the epidemic, and to those of you caring for family and friends, especially those dealing with the particular challenges of dementia.
 
We at CDCIG are doing whatever we can to contribute to Cochrane’s response to COVID-19, both as individuals in our respective fields and as a review group.
This is the link to Cochrane’s COVID-19 webpage where you can find detailed information of Cochrane’s response.

Although dementia and cognition may not seem of immediate relevance in a viral pandemic, the indirect effects of COVID are now being seen in dementia care.  For example, COVID can be complicated by severe delirium. People with dementia and their caregivers may be especially vulnerable not only to COVID-19, but also to the effects of social isolation. Movement restrictions may limit visits from family and friends and clinical dementia services are increasingly being delivered remotely.  

We recently updated our review ‘Simulated Presence therapy for dementia’ and we have a new intervention review in progress on 'Remotely-delivered information, training and support for informal caregivers of people with dementia'. Keeping clinical services going is also a challenge and a new DTA review is also underway on ‘Diagnostic test accuracy of remote cognitive assessment (telephone and video call) for dementia and other cognitive disorders’.
 
COVID-19 is often associated with delirium, so our delirium reviews may be of interest:

Antipsychotics for treatment of delirium in hospitalised non-ICU patients
Benzodiazepines for treatment of patients with delirium excluding those who are cared for in an intensive care unit
Cholinesterase inhibitors for the treatment of delirium in non-ICU settings
Interventions for preventing delirium in hospitalised non-ICU patients
Interventions for preventing delirium in older people in institutional long-term care

We’d be very interested to hear from you if there are other dementia-related topics you think would benefit from a systematic review

in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Please contact Sue Marcus (Managing Editor), email address: sue.marcus@rdm.ox.ac.uk