Trial groups announced to Caen volunteers

The first wave of volunteers taking part in the Caen clinical trial have just been told which groups they will participate in  – whether it’s meditation, learning English or the control group.

At a meeting with the Silver Santé Project Coordinator, Dr Gaël Chételat, the volunteers were first thanked for their involvement in the project before being handed envelopes revealing the long-awaited news of which group they would be joining.

The volunteers will now join their assigned groups and will meet with the project team for intermediate assessments and evaluations after nine months and again after 12 months.

Dr Gaël Chételat (left) with volunteer group for the Caen clinical trials.  

Silver Sante Study nominated for SilverEco 2017 Award

The Silver Santé Study is delighted to have been chosen as one of five finalists in the research and development category of the prestigious SilverEco 2017 awards in France.

More than 1200 individuals, organisations and businesses working in the Silver Economy – including Silver Santé Project’s Gaël Chetelat and Géraldine Poisnel – attended a “Folies Bergere” awards ceremony in Paris on 20^th March at which the winners of various award categories relating to well-being in later life were chosen.

Congratulations to everyone working on the Silver Santé Study!

Gaël Chetelat (left) and Géraldine Poisnel at the SilverEco 2017 Awards on the 20th March 2017. 

Four centre clinical trial launched to investigate benefits of mental training techniques on memory clinic patients

A clinical trial investigating the impact of mental training techniques on the health and well-being of patients with subjective cognitive decline (SCD) was launched on 30 March.

The trial – part of the €7 million EU-funded Silver Santé Study – is taking place simultaneously at memory clinics in the UK, France, Germany and Spain and will assess the effects of short-term interventions, such as learning a language and meditation, on around 160 patients. Behavioural measures will be monitored to see how much of a difference can be made to participants’ well-being due to an intervention.

Further clinical trials are taking place with expert meditators and older-adult volunteers (recruited from the general population in Caen, France) who will take part in various cognitive activities, from learning a language to regular meditation practice.

SCD-Well team members from all four countries involved in the study. 

Hundreds volunteer to take part in Age-Well Study

Baseline tests have just begun on the first group of volunteers to pass the screening process for our Age-Well Study in Caen, France.

Hundreds of people aged 65 plus and living in the Caen area have already responded to our invitation to take part in the Study, and those who have successfully completed the screening  have just had an initial medical assessment and blood samples taken. The study will assess the effects of cognitive interventions – such as meditation and language learning – on volunteers through both behavioural and biological measures.

Many more volunteers will be needed as the study progresses and a second wave of recruitment, including a series of public meetings, will take place in the spring of 2017. For full details of those events and to access the online pre-screening information please visit our French language website by clicking here

Project coordinator Dr Gaël Chételat (second from left) and Dr Antoine Lutz (third from right) chat with potential clinical trial volunteers at one of the Project’s public meetings in Caen, France.

Silver Santé Study partners gather for General Assembly in Bonn

Silver Santé Study partners from across Europe met in Bonn last month (Nov 2016) for the project’s 2016 General Assembly meeting.

Partners heard how each part of the project was progressing and discussions took place about some of the more detailed aspects of the studies and work packages. Parallel workshops were also held to agree certain aspects of the clinical trials.

The project’s next General Assembly meeting will take place in Barcelona in November 2017.

The Study 1 team take part in a workshop at the General Assembly meeting in Bonn in November 2016 to discuss details of their clinical trial.

Memory clinic patient trials due to begin in March

Partners from three European countries will meet with colleagues at University College London (UCL) in January to finalise plans for the start of a clinical trial involving patients with subjective cognitive decline.

This multi-centre trial – which will take place in Germany, Spain, France and the UK – will assess the effects of an 8-week mindfulness course and of an 8-week health education programme on patients recruited from memory clinics.

The protocol that describes the details of the study has been written and approved by the necessary scientific committees, and the team – led by Dr Natalie Marchant, of University College London (UCL) – is awaiting ethical approval in each participating country. The trial is due to start simultaneously in each of the four countries in March 2017.

Dr Natalie Marchant (left), coordinator of Study 1 with Debbie Horney (right), manager of the clinical trial, both of University College London (UCL).

Preparations are progressing for a further clinical trial which will be carried out over four countries – France, Germany, Spain and the UK. The protocol that describes the details of the study has been written and approved by the necessary scientific committees, and the team – led by Natalie Marchant, of the University of London (UCL) – is now applying for ethical approval in each participating country. Debbie Horney has joined the team at UCL and will be coordinating the clinical trial for the UK site. With this momentum the team is on track to start approaching volunteers to take part in the study in early 2017.

Volunteers aged 65 and over in Caen, France, have been invited to attend local public meetings to learn more about how they might be able to take part in clinical trials there. The meetings, to be held in October and November 2016, will give people the opportunity to find out more about the project, what’s involved in taking part and to ask any further questions they may have. For full details of the French public meetings and to access the online pre-screening information please visit our French language website by clicking here.

In September, 2016, Silver Santé researchers took part in a discussion on Contemporary Sciences and Contemplative Science with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The event, held at the University of Strasbourg, saw His Holiness join live discussions, one of which was about the Silver Santé Study. Project Coordinator Gaël Chételat and tenured research scientist Antoine Lutz, both of INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherché médicale) discussed the objectives of the Silver Santé Study and took part in the discussion about the potential benefits of meditation, physical activity, diet and learning on mental health and well-being in later life.

You can view the discussion by clicking here.