A comparison of semantic memory in vascular dementia and dementia ofAlzheimer's type
P.W. Bentham
Bok Engelsk 1997
| Utgitt | 1997
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| Omfang | Side 575- 580
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| Opplysninger | Objective. To determine whether semantic memory is impaired invascular dementia and to assess the utility of semantic memorymeasures in differentiating vascular dementia from dementia ofAlzheimer's type (DAT).Design. Case-control study.Patients. Ten patients with Cambridge Mental Disorders in the Elderly(CAMDEX) diagnosis of 'definite' mild or moderate vascular dementia(mean age 77) were individually matched with 10 patients with aCAMDEX diagnosis of 'definite' DAT on the basis of age, education,sex, premorbid IQ (as measured by the National Adult Reading Test)and performance on the Cambridge Cognitive Examination (CAMCOG) Inaddition, 10 age, sex and education matched volunteer or relativecontrols were assessed.Outcome measures. A detailed semantic memory test battery consistingof five subtests: category fluency, picture naming, picture sorting,word-picture matching and generation of verbal definitions.Results. Compared to normal controls, both patient groups wereimpaired on all subtests of the semantic battery with the exceptionof the word-picture matching test. No differences were found betweenthe vascular dementia and DAT groups on any of the measures.Conclusions. Impairment of semantic memory is a feature of bothvascular dementia and DAT. Tests of semantic memory appear,therefore, of little value in differentiating between these two majorcauses of dementia. Further work is required to determine whether thenature of the processing deficit is the same in these conditions. (C)1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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