Articles: dementia.
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Delirium is a common mental disorder in the elderly with old age being a major risk factor for delirium. Another major risk factor is dementia. The aim of the present study was to identify differences in occurrence of episodes of delirium between the most common dementia diagnoses and the possible importance of age, gender, severity and duration of dementia for the development of delirium. ⋯ The differences in occurrence of delirium between the diagnostic groups in this sample could not be explained by differences in age. It seems that delirium is more common in brain disorders such as LAD and VAD in which the damage to the brain is more widespread. In the two brain disorders that are predominantly cortical, EAD and FTD, the occurrence of delirium was comparatively low.
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There are several widely used sets of criteria for the diagnosis of dementia, but little is known about their degree of agreement and their effects on estimates of the prevalence of dementia. ⋯ The commonly used criteria for diagnosis can differ by a factor of 10 in the number of subjects classified as having dementia. Such disagreement has serious implications for research and treatment, as well as for the right of many older persons to drive, make a will, and handle financial affairs.
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Psychological medicine · Nov 1997
The effects of intelligence and education on the development of dementia. A test of the brain reserve hypothesis.
A number of recent epidemiological studies have shown that the prevalence and incidence of dementia are increased in population strata with low compared to high levels of education. This has been explained as a consequence of a greater 'brain reserve capacity' in people with a high level of education. Theoretically, however, brain reserve capacity is better reflected by intelligence than by level of education. Thus, the emergence of dementia will be better predicted by low pre-morbid intelligence than by low education. ⋯ This result supports the brain reserve theory. It also indicates that low pre-morbid intelligence is an important risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia. Use of reading ability tests is to be preferred over years of education as estimator of pre-morbid cognitive level in (epidemiological) dementia research.
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Psychological medicine · Nov 1997
Temporal lobe magnetic resonance imaging can differentiate Alzheimer's disease from normal ageing, depression, vascular dementia and other causes of cognitive impairment.
Previous work suggests that temporal lobe magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can distinguish those with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) from healthy age-matched controls. However, its specificity with regard to conditions such as vascular dementia, depression and other disorders associated with cognitive impairment has not been determined. ⋯ Temporal lobe MRI may have an important role in assisting with the clinical diagnosis of DAT, particularly its differentiation from depression and other disorders that may cause diagnostic difficulties in clinical practice.
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Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord · Nov 1997
Comparative StudyEpisodic memory functioning in population-based samples of very old adults with Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.
Population-based samples of normal old adults, patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), and patients with vascular dementia (VaD) between 90 and 100 years of age were given a series of episodic memory tasks, assessing face recognition, word recall, and object recall. Results indicated (a) no group differences in those variables reflecting primary memory, and clear dementia-related deficits in secondary memory; (b) no differences between persons with AD and VaD in face recognition and object recall, and (c) an advantage of VaD patients compared with AD patients in word recall. It was suggested that the ability to transfer information from temporary to permanent storage may be particularly affected by a dementing disease. In addition, the selective AD-related deficit in word recall was interpreted in terms of a greater impairment of various language-related skills in AD compared with VaD.