Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders
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Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord · Jan 2012
Memory impairment, in mild cognitive impairment without significant cerebrovascular disease, predicts progression to Alzheimer's disease.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) usually represents a transitional phase between normal cognitive function and dementia, but not all people with MCI develop dementia because MCI is a clinically and etiologically heterogeneous grouping. The aim of this study was to compare progression rates to Alzheimer's disease (AD) among various MCI subtypes which show minimal white matter ischemia. ⋯ Subjects with mdMCI+a had a statistically significant association with progression to AD. Especially, in cases of degenerative etiologies, impairment of the memory domain is more important than impairment of multiple domains in predicting the progression to dementia.
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Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord · Jan 2012
Comparative StudyPsychometric properties of the pain assessment in advanced dementia scale compared to self assessment of pain in elderly patients.
The aims of the present study were to report on the psychometric properties of the Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia (PAINAD) scale by comparing it with the gold standard method of self-reporting on a numerical rating scale (NRS), and to provide a categorical version of the PAINAD scale comparable with the verbal descriptor scale of the NRS. ⋯ Our findings clearly indicate that the PAINAD scale is a reliable and easily administered tool for assessing pain intensity also in elderly patients with advanced dementia.
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Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord · Jan 2012
Physiological fall risk factors in cognitively impaired older people: a one-year prospective study.
Cognitively impaired older people are at twice the risk of falls compared to cognitively intact, with approximately 60% falling once or more per year. This study aimed to investigate sensorimotor and balance risk factors for falls in cognitively impaired older people. ⋯ These findings indicate poor performance on physiological fall risk factors, particularly balance, increases the risk of falls in older cognitively impaired people.
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Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord · Jan 2012
The assessment of changes in cognitive functioning in the elderly: age- and education-specific reliable change indices for the SIDAM.
The diagnostic criteria for dementia include reliable evidence of cognitive deterioration over time measured by cognitive tests. The Structured Interview for the Diagnosis of Dementia of the Alzheimer Type, Multi-infarct Dementia and Dementia of other Etiology according to DSM-III-R, DSM-IV and ICD-10 (SIDAM) is a neuropsychological instrument to determine cognitive status in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. Normative data for changes in cognitive functioning that normally occur in cognitively healthy individuals are required to interpret changes in SIDAM test scores. ⋯ This study offers age- and education-specific normative data for the SIDAM based upon established RCI methods. The RCI scores provided in this study may help clinicians and researchers to interpret cognitive changes in SIDAM test scores and may contribute to the early detection and diagnosis of MCI and dementia in the elderly.
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Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord · Jan 2011
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyQuality of life and the effect of memantine in dementia with lewy bodies and Parkinson's disease dementia.
To investigate quality of life (QOL) and the effect of memantine treatment in patients with Lewy body dementias. ⋯ This study shows that memantine improves QOL in Lewy body dementias. We also demonstrate important QOL patterns which can be used in clinical practice.