































3    Editorial for Annals of Psychophysiology Volume 12 
______________________________________________________________________________ 
It is Time to Perform Formal Investigations of Psychophysiological 
Interventions That Might Slow The Progress of Alzheimer’s Disease 
Richard A. Sherman, Editor-In-Chief 
Published online: June 2025 
© The Author(s) 2025 

 
 Given the exposés of chronic falsification of data on etiology and treatment of 

Alzheimer's disease (Piller, 2025) combined with devastating cuts in federal funding for basic 

and applied research, it is time to perform formal investigations of psychophysiological 

interventions that might slow the progress of Alzheimer’s disease. Numerous tiny, uncontrolled 

reports hint that several psychophysiological interventions might be able to slow the progress of 

the disorder. These interventions deserve further investigation given the failure of the current 

crop of medicine-based treatments and preventives (with the exception of shingles vaccines 

(Eyting et al, 2025)). 

  There is reasonably strong evidence that moderate Alzheimer’s is related to 

inflammation in the central nervous system (Irwin et al, 2019; Schmidt et al, 2002). Medications 

that reduce peripheral inflammation do not have a consistent protective effect on the progression 

of stage four Alzheimer’s but both Photobiomodulation (PBM) and Pulsed Electromagnetic 

Fields (PEMF) have shown promising results for reducing inflammation in the CNS (Hamblin, 

2019). Several small clinical studies utilizing these techniques have shown promising results for 

moderating cognitive decline for Alzheimer’s disease (Arendash, 2019; Berman and Nichols, 

2019).   

 Small, controlled pilot studies of PEMF and PBM utilizing accepted outcome measures 

of cognition and memory could be performed with minimal funding from private groups to 

ascertain whether full-scale studies are warranted.  It is time to give them the trials they deserve. 

References 

Arendash, G., Cao, C., Abulaban, H., Baranowski, R., Wisniewski, G., Becerra, L., Andel, R.,  

Lin, X., Zhang, X., Wittwer, D. and Moulton, J., (2019). A clinical trial of transcranial  

electromagnetic treatment in Alzheimer’s disease: Cognitive enhancement and  

associated changes in cerebrospinal fluid, blood, and brain imaging. Journal of  

https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad190367
https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad190367
https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad190367
https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad190367


Alzheimer’s disease, 71(1), pp.57-82.   

Berman, M., Nichols, T. (2019). Treatment of Neurodegeneration: Integrating  
 
 Photobiomodulation and Neurofeedback in Alzheimer's Dementia and Parkinson's:  
  
 A Review. Photobiomodulation, Photomedicine, and Laser Surgery  
 
 https://doi.org/10.1089/photob.2019.4685 
Eyting, M., Xie, M., Michalik, F., Heß, S., Chung, S., & Geldsetzer, P. (2025). A natural  

 experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on  

 dementia. Nature, 641(8062), 438-446. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08800-x  

Hamblin, M. (2019) Photobiomodulation for Alzheimer’s Disease: Has the Light Dawned?  

 Photonics, 6(3), 77; https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics6030077 

Irwin, M., Vitiello, M. (2019) Implications of sleep disturbance and inflammation for  

 Alzheimer's disease dementia. Lancet 18(3) p 296-306 

Piller, C. (2025) The Devastating Legacy of Lies in Alzheimer’s Science.   

 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/opinion/alzheimers-fraud-cure.html?smid=nytcore-android-share 

Schmidt, R., Schmidt, H., Curb, D., Masaki, K., White, L., Launer, L. (2002)    Early  

 inflammation and dementia: A 25-year follow-up of the Honolulu-Asia aging study.  

 Annals of Neurology  https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.10265 

 

 

 

https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad190367
https://doi.org/10.1089/photob.2019.4685
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08800-x
https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics6030077
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/opinion/alzheimers-fraud-cure.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ana.10265#fn1
https://doi.org/10.1002/ana.10265

