RESUMO
We compared the sensitivity and specificity of recently proposed general dementia, vascular dementia, and Alzheimer's disease criteria using the DSM III-R as the 'gold standard' among 61 elderly African American patients. There were 10 patients with vascular dementia, 20 with Alzheimer's disease and 31 controls. Comparison of the sensitivity and specificity of the various criteria showed that with few exceptions, the results were similar. Additional studies of this kind among different populations, and among mild dementia patients, are needed to cross-validate the results.
Assuntos
Doença de Alzheimer/diagnóstico , População Negra , Demência/diagnóstico , Testes Neuropsicológicos , Atividades Cotidianas/classificação , Negro ou Afro-Americano , Idoso , Doença de Alzheimer/etiologia , Doença de Alzheimer/psicologia , Demência/etiologia , Demência/psicologia , Feminino , Humanos , Masculino , Fatores de RiscoRESUMO
We studied insight into illness in 41 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease. An impaired insight score was developed by measuring discrepancies between patient report and caregiver report on standard instruments of activities of daily living. Insight was more impaired in subjects with greater dementia severity and subjects with paranoid delusions. In a multivariate analysis, the best neuropsychological predictors of impaired insight were the Continuous Performance Test and the Visual Reproduction Test. We speculate that the impaired insight of Alzheimer's disease has two components: confabulation reflecting prefrontal dysfunction and anosognosia reflecting right-hemisphere dysfunction.
