Melissa Armstrong

About

Melissa Armstrong, MD, MSc, FAAN, is a professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Florida College of Medicine. She is the Director of the UF Health Mangurian Clinical-Research Headquarters for Lewy body Dementia at the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases. Dr. Armstrong received her medical degree from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, where she also completed her neurology residency. She further specialized with a movement disorders fellowship at Toronto Western Hospital and earned a Master of Science in clinical epidemiology and healthcare research from the University of Toronto in 2011. Her clinical practice focuses on conditions within the Parkinson family, including Parkinson disease, Lewy body dementia, and atypical parkinsonisms such as corticobasal syndrome, progressive supranuclear palsy, and multiple system atrophy. Her approach emphasizes partnering with patients and their families to determine personalized care strategies aimed at improving quality of life, utilizing medications, therapy, dietary, and social support. Dr. Armstrong conducts research funded by the NIH and Florida Department of Health at her lab, the LBD Life Lab, investigating causes, outcomes, diagnosis, and treatment of dementia with Lewy bodies, as well as the lived experiences of patients and caregivers. In addition to her research and clinical work, she serves as the Associate Chair of Faculty Development for the Department of Neurology at the…

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Political Science
• Clinical psychology
• Intensive care medicine
• Psychology
• Pathology
• Pediatrics
• Internal medicine

Selected publications

• Diagnosis and Treatment of Parkinson Disease

  JAMA · 2020 · 2742 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Importance: Parkinson disease is the most common form of parkinsonism, a group of neurological disorders with Parkinson disease-like movement problems such as rigidity, slowness, and tremor. More than 6 million individuals worldwide have Parkinson disease. Observations: Diagnosis of Parkinson disease is based on history and examination. History can include prodromal features (eg, rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, hyposmia, constipation), characteristic movement difficulty (eg, tremor,…

  DOI

• Antiamyloid Monoclonal Antibody Therapy for Alzheimer Disease

  Neurology · 2023 · 85 citations

  With recent data demonstrating that lecanemab treatment can slow cognitive and functional decline in early symptomatic Alzheimer disease (AD), it is widely anticipated that this drug and potentially other monoclonal antibody infusions targeting β-amyloid protein will imminently be realistic options for some patients with AD. Given that these new antiamyloid monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are associated with nontrivial risks and burdens of treatment that are radically different from current mainsta…

  DOI

• Informing etiological heterogeneity of mild cognitive impairment and risk for progression to dementia with plasma p-tau217

  The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer s Disease · 2025-01-01 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a clinical diagnosis representing early symptom changes with preserved functional independence. There are multiple potential etiologies of MCI. While often presumed to be related to Alzheimer's disease (AD), other neurodegenerative and non-neurodegenerative causes are common. Wider availability of relatively non-invasive plasma AD biomarkers, such as p-tau217, can provide invaluable insights into MCI clinico-pathology and the associated implications for symptom…

  PublisherDOI

• It is time to share Alzheimer biomarker results in dementia with Lewy bodies

  Alzheimer s & Dementia Diagnosis Assessment & Disease Monitoring · 2025-07-01 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  There are increasing calls for sharing individual biomarker results with participants in dementia research. No studies investigate returning Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarker results to individuals with syndromic dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) even though most of these individuals have both pathologies. This perspective argues that AD biomarkers are valid, interpretable, and actionable, particularly relating to expected prognosis and treatment effects, in people with DLB. Thus, there is an eth…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cognitive decline profiles associated with lewy pathology in the context of Alzheimer’s disease neuropathologic change

  Alzheimer s Research & Therapy · 2024-12-20 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease neuropathologic change (ADNC) and Lewy pathology (LP) often coexist in cognitively impaired individuals. These pathologies' relative distribution and severity may modify these individuals' clinical presentation, cognitive profile, and prognosis. Therefore, we examined the contributions of LP and concomitant ADNC to disease survival and profiles of cognitive decline in preclinical and clinical stages in a large neuropathologically diagnosed group. METHODS: We evalu…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Enhancing Clinical Guideline Development via Patient and Stakeholder Engagement

  NIH · $693k · 2015–2020

• 1Florida Alzheimer's Disease Research Center

  NIH · $33.7M · 2020–2026

• Identifying Factors Predicting ACcurately End-of-Life in Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Promoting Quality End-of-Life Experiences: the PACE-DLB Study

  NIH · $3.4M · 2020–2026

Frequent coauthors

• Gary Gronseth

  Boston University

  3153 shared

• Gregory S. Day

  Mayo Clinic in Florida

  2526 shared

• Kelly L. Sullivan

  Georgia Southern University

  2482 shared

• Tamara Pringsheim

  University of Calgary

  2455 shared

• Anthony E. Lang

  University of Toronto

  2445 shared

• Justin Martello

  Christiana Care Health System

  2421 shared

• Janis M. Miyasaki

  University of Alberta

  2414 shared

• Robert A. Hauser

  University of South Florida

  2409 shared

Labs

• iBRAIN LabPI

Education

• B.A., Chemistry

  Illinois Wesleyan University

  1995

• M.S., Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research

  University of Toronto Institute for Health Policy Management and Evaluation

• M.D.

  Stritch School of Medicine (Loyola University Chicago)

Awards & honors

• Faculty Clinical Research Award 2016 University of Florida D…
• Golden Hammer Award 2015 University of Maryland Department o…
• American Academy of Neurology Emerging Leader 2013

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