A preliminary report: A new scale to identify the pseudodementiasyndrome
G. Yousef
Bok Engelsk 1998
| Utgitt | 1998
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| Omfang | Side 389- 399
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| Opplysninger | Background. The literature was reviewed to abstract items which wereclaimed to distinguish organic dementia from pseudodementia. Theirdiscriminating powers were tested in a prospective study. Eighteen ofthese items were selected to create a questionnaire which shoulddistinguish organic dementia from pseudodementia. The gold standardwas the final diagnosis given by a consultant psychiatrist 12-14months later.Method, One hundred and twenty-eight patients referred to our servicewith a differential diagnosis of depressive pseudodementia werescreened using a checklist of 44 characteristic features (in the formof questions with 'yes' or 'no' answers) which were claimed in theliterature to differentiate between organic dementia and depressivepseudodementia, This checklist covers the areas of history, clinicaldata, insight and performance.Results. Forty points (questions) out of the 44 in the checklistshowed significant discriminating power to differentiate dementiafrom depressive pseudodementia (p < 0.01). A principal component andfactor analysis was performed from which 18 questions were extracted.The shortened questionnaire was able to classify (43/44 cases) 98% ofdementia cases and (60/63) 95% of depression correctly. A newdefinition has been introduced for 'pseudodementia' as a syndrome ofreversible subjective or objective cognitive problems caused by non-organic disorder. Thus depressive pseudodementia may be classifiedinto two subtypes. Type I is a group of patients who have depressivesymptoms with subject complaint of dysmnesia without measurableintellectual deficits. Type II is a group of patients who havedepressive symptoms and show poor cognitive performance based on poorconcentration not due to organic disorder. (C) 1998 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.
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