Staff Researcher, Mental Health Service, SFVAMC
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, UCSF

Email: deborah.barnes@ucsf.edu

Dr. Barnes studies ways to predict and prevent cognitive impairment and dementia in older adults, including Veterans. Her work has two major themes. The first is trying to identify those who are at highest risk of developing cognitive impairment and dementia. To better address that question, she has created a simple test to predict dementia risk that can be administered in a doctor’s office in a few minutes. Dr. Barnes’s second major theme is studying ways to prevent dementia. She is interested in whether lifestyle changes, such as being more physically active, more mentally active, and staying socially engaged, can make a difference in delaying or even preventing cognitive impairment and dementia among the elderly. To that end, she is conducting research aimed at identifying individual health and behavioral factors that have a potential impact on cognition.

Barnes DE, Cauley JA, Lui LY, Fink HA, McCulloch C, Stone KL, Yaffe K. 2007. Women who maintain optimal cognitive function into old age. J Am Geriatr Soc 55(2):259-64.

Barnes DE, Covinsky KE, Whitmer RA, Kuller LH, Lopez OL, Yaffe K. 2009. Predicting risk of dementia in older adults: The late-life dementia risk index. Neurology 73(3):173-9.