ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to investigate the proportion of dementia studies and the trends of the use of neuropsychological tests in dementia studies for the past 10 years. METHODS: The subjects of this study were 715 original articles published in Journal of Korean Neuropsychiatric Association and 72 original articles published in Journal of Korean Geriatric Psychiatry between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009. Among those, there were 78 articles of dementia study and 36 articles using the neuropsychological test used for the analysis. According to the published year, all articles were divided into two stages (between 2000-2004, between 2005-2009). The data were collected for what neuropsychological tests were used. RESULTS: The proportion of dementia studies increased from 8.2% to 12.4% and the proportion of dementia studies using the neuropsychological test decreased from 60.5% to 37.5%, when comparing the two stages. The use rate of screening tests, intelligence tests, and domain-specific cognitive tests decreased from 91.3% to 84.6%, 13.0% to 0%, 91.3% to 76.9% respectively, whereas the use rate of comprehensive assessment of dementia increased from 21.7% to 38.5%. CONCLUSION: These results show an increasing trend in dementia studies and decreasing rate of neuropsychological test use in Korea. However, the use rate of comprehensive assessment of dementia increased.