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Differentiation between organic and functional psychiatric illness in the elderly: An evaluation of four cognitive tests
Author(s) -
Orrell Martin,
Howard Robert,
Payne Andrew,
Bergmann Klaus,
Woods Robert,
Everitt Brian S.,
Levy Raymond
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.930070408
Subject(s) - dementia , depression (economics) , cognition , discriminant function analysis , mini–mental state examination , psychiatry , psychology , test (biology) , alzheimer's disease , cognitive test , disease , clinical psychology , medicine , cognitive impairment , paleontology , machine learning , biology , computer science , economics , macroeconomics
One hundred and sixty‐four patients admitted to a psychogeriatric unit were given a combination of four different cognitive tests: the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), the Abbreviated Mental Test Score, The Felix Post Unit Score and the compilation of tests recommended by the MRC Alzheimer's Disease Workshop. The tests were compared with respect to their ability to sort accurately cases of dementia and depression, and the effects of age and education on test score and misclassification rate with diagnosis controlled for. The MMSE had a very high misclassification rate for the poorly educated and depressed group. The logistical discriminant functional analysis selected only eight items as the best discriminators between organic/ functional or dementia/depression groups. Only one of these eight was not either a memory or orientation test. The value of simply adding up tests of different aspects of cognitive function in dementia assessment or screening is questioned.