Research Studies

Sign up by: 01 September 2025

Caregiving for people with dementia has become an issue of international importance. The focus of research in caregiver burden and distress in neurodegenerative disease has been on the patients' cognitive deficits and neuropsychiatric symptoms. Social cognition comprises many psychological processes that allows individuals to partake in social situations by enabling them to perceive and recognize the thoughts, emotions, and behaviours of others. There is growing awareness of social cognitive deficits occurring in the different neurodegenerative diseases. People with dementia may display increasing difficulties in understanding social cues or recognizing emotions and caregivers are generally unaware of these deficits. There is growing evidence that changes in emotion recognition can impact caregiver mood and be associated with caregiver burden.

This is a pilot project to assess the feasibility of educating dementia caregivers on emotion recognition deficits and decreased empathy in patients with dementia and the impact of education on caregiver burden, mood and quality of life. Seventy-five dementia caregiver-patient pairs will be recruited for this cross-sectional study. Caregivers' ability to detect emotion recognition deficits and empathy impairment in the patient will be assessed. Caregivers will be given a questionnaire to evaluate their knowledge of emotion recognition deficits and empathy impairment in the patient. Caregiver burden, mood, and quality of life will be assessed. The caregivers will then be given educational material on emotion recognition deficits and empathy impairment in dementia and then be asked to evaluate the information they have received. After 1 month, caregivers will be contacted to assess whether the information they received changed their understanding of emotion recognition deficits and empathy impairment and if it had an impact on caregiver burden, mood and quality of life.

Key Details
Study Sponsor: Toronto Western and General Hospitals
Location: In-person (Optional at Toronto Western Hospital) + Phone (Optional)
How Often: Yearly
Compensation: No

Contact: Daniela Mora-Fisher, Clinical Research Coordinator
[email protected]
416-603-5914

Sign up by: 01 September 2025

This study follows people with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and corticobasal degeneration (CBD) for up to 2 years and compares their brain changes with healthy volunteers of the same age. Researchers hope to learn more about how patients with PSP and CBD progress over time and which measures are best for tracking change and predicting progression. Various measures including brain imaging, cerebrospinal fluid analysis, eye tracking, blood markers and neuropsychological testing will be measured.

Key Details
Study Sponsor: Mayo Clinic NIH
Location: In-person (Required at Toronto Western Hospital)
How Often: A few times a year + Yearly
Compensation: Yes (Participants will be compensated for their time and expenses)

Contact: Daniela Mora-Fisher, Clinical Research Coordinator
[email protected]
416-603-5914

Sign up by: August 17, 2025

The goal of our study is to see if a nutrition questionnaire can identify nutrition challenges for persons living with diagnosed dementia or mild cognitive impairment when completed by themselves or by their care partner. Persons living with diagnosed dementia or mild cognitive impairment and their care partner will participate. There are three study visits conducted at your home or at the University of Waterloo. The study will involve questionnaires, weight, height and functional assessments and you will record food and beverage intake for one day. At the last study visit you will meet with a registered dietitian for an assessment and receive individualized tips on how you can improve your nutrition.

Key details

Study sponsor: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)

Location: In-person participation - Researchers may either come into your personal home or you may choose to complete data collection at the University of Waterloo Toby Jenkins Applied Health Research Building

How often: A few times a month (e.g. biweekly/every 2 weeks)

Compensation: $25 gift card or equal value gift

Contact: Vanessa Trinca, Project Coordinator

[email protected]

519-888-4567 ext. 41470

Sign up by: October 1, 2025

We are a team conducting research investigating opportunities to preserve brain health in individuals experiencing mild cognitive impairment. Specifically, we are assessing the brain's ability to induce short-term neuroplasticity before and following a four-week exercise intervention. The exercise involves cycling on a stationary bike for approximately 5 - 10 minutes at a self-determined intensity and will be supervised by qualified personnel at McMaster University's Physical Activity Center Exercise. We will measure brain responses using a non-invasive technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation. The long-term goal of this work is to determine whether exercise can improve memory loss in individuals with mild cognitive impairment.

Key Details

Study Sponsor: McMaster Institute for Research in Aging (MIRA)

Location: In-person (Required at 1280 Main St W, Hamilton ON) and Phone

How Often: A few times per week

Compensation: None

Contact: Karishma Ramdeo, PhD Student

[email protected]

(647) 991-9904

Sign up by: December 31, 2026

This is a multisite study which aims to evaluate and characterize genetic frontotemporal dementia (FTD) patients and asymptomatic individuals belonging to family with a strong history of an FTD. Researchers seek to better understand the brain changes that occur in FTD and which measures are best for tracking change and predicting progression. Various measures including brain imaging, eye tracking, blood markers and neuropsychological testing will be measured.

For more information, check out their website at GENFI – The Genetic Frontotemporal Initiative.

Key Details

Study Sponsor: Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR)

Location: In-person (2075 Bayview Ave, Toronto ON M4N 3M5)

How Often: Yearly

Compensation: Meal voucher and parking passes provided at each visit.

Contact: Sabrina Armstrong, Clinical Research Coordinator

[email protected]

416-480-6100 ext. 1620

Sign up by: 31 December 2025

Nabilone is a drug that has been shown in previous studies to improve the symptoms of patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer's Disease (AD) including agitation in small studies, as well as cognition and caregiver distress, with minimal side effects - a stark contrast to existing and prospective treatments showing various drawbacks. The overall objective of this study is to assess the safety and efficacy of nabilone for managing agitation in patients with AD in large multi-center study and to identify biological markers for assessing agitation severity and treatment response. This study will also review whether Nabilone is beneficial for other outcomes, such as overall neuropsychiatric symptoms, caregiver distress, cognition, nutritional status, pain, and global function in patients with moderate-to-severe AD over 9 weeks.

Key Details

Study Sponsor: The regulatory sponsor for this study is Sunnybrook Research Institute (SRI), with their Centre for Clinical Trial Support (CCTS) being the coordinating centre for the study. The funding agencies supporting this study are the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF), and the Weston Brain Institute (WBI).

Location: In-person (700 Gordon Street, Whitby, ON) and phone

How Often: intake of drug required daily

Compensation: You may be reimbursed for parking or transportation to the clinic.

Contact

Dr. Amer Burhan, Geriatric Psychiatrist

[email protected]

905-430-4055 Ext 6053

Sign up by: 30 April 2025

In this project, participants will first undergo a series of pen and paper tasks looking at their thinking abilities, and then partake in a computer task where they look at images of objects and answer questions about those objects. Simultaneously with this task, participants will be monitored through an electroencephalogram and an electrocardiogram. The goal of this study is to analyze how individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment have differing brain and body activity for cognitive tasks compared to healthy aging individuals.

Key Details

Study Sponsor: This research is funded by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Location: In-person (Baycrest Hospital, 3560 Bathurst Street Toronto, ON M6A 2E1)

How Often: A few times a month

Compensation: Yes (Participants will be compensated $15/hour. The study involves two 2-hour sessions, and a 30-minute MRI. For MRI, compensation will be $25.)

Contact: Evi Myftaraj, Researcher

[email protected]

416-803-2469

Sign up by: 30 September 2025

This study is about improving a digital reminder system that helps people living with dementia manage daily routines like eating, getting ready for appointments, or getting dressed. The goal is to make the system more helpful for caregivers by improving the alerts they receive when the person they care for misses or delays a task, or when their habits change. Caregivers will take part in interviews to share what kinds of routine changes are most important to know about. The interviews will also explore preferences for alerts-such as how often alerts should appear and how sensitive they should be to routine changes. The feedback from these interviews will be used to design a more effective and easy-to-use system in the next phase of the study.

Key Details
Study Sponsor: AGE-WELL NCE and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Location: In-person (Toronto) + Online (optional)
How Often: Yearly
Compensation: $30 upon completion

Contact: Joy Lai, MASC Student
[email protected]
613-985-1447

Sign up by: 01 February 2026

This study is testing a new AI-powered digital reminder app that helps people with dementia with daily tasks. It also sends alerts to the caregiver if there are changes in routine, like missing a reminder or doing things at a different time. People living with dementia and their caregivers will use the app at home for 4 to 8 weeks. The app will show alerts and ask caregivers for feedback. This helps improve how the app works. At the end of the study, people living with dementia and their caregivers will be asked what they liked or didn't like and how the app could be better. The goal is to make a tool that helps people stay independent and supports caregivers in daily care.

Key Details
Study Sponsor: AGE-WELL NCE and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Location: Participant's home in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA)
How Often: 2-5x weekly
Compensation: $30 upon completion of the 4-8 week usability testing

Contact: Joy Lai, MASc Student
[email protected]
613-985-1447

Emerging evidence suggests that the phytocannabinoid CBD may have therapeutic potential for the treatment of agitation in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Besides modulating the endocannabinoid system, CBD interacts with multiple targets including serotonin, adenosine, dopamine and opioid receptors to exert a broad spectrum of potentially beneficial effects.

This trial's overall objective is to obtain Class 1 evidence regarding the safety and efficacy of CBD (a botanical cannabinoid drug) for managing agitation in patients with AD and to identify novel biomarkers of agitation severity and treatment response. Study will establish whether CBD is beneficial for other relevant outcomes in participants with AD and agitation in comparison to placebo through overall psychiatric symptoms, caregiver distress, cognition, nutritional status, pain, and global function in participants with moderate-to-severe AD over 8 weeks.

Key Details

Study Sponsor: Sunnybrook Research Institute, Centre for Clinical Trail Support (CCTS), and Weston Brain Institute (WBI)

Location: 700 Gordon Street, Whitby, ON (In-person only)

How Often: Every day

Compensation: Yes - for travel purposes

Contact: Dr. Amer Burhan, Geriatric Psychiatrist

[email protected]

905-430-4055