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S3‐02‐04: Lack of practice effects on neuropsychological tests as early cognitive markers of Alzheimer's disease?
Author(s) -
Monsch Andreas U.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2010.05.379
Subject(s) - neuropsychology , neuropsychological assessment , cognition , boston naming test , verbal learning , neuropsychological test , alzheimer's disease , psychology , medicine , audiology , logistic regression , memory clinic , cognitive test , cognitive decline , disease , dementia , clinical psychology , gerontology , cognitive impairment , psychiatry
Reliable assessment of change from previous cognitive functioning is a prerequisite for determining the possible presence of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). We investigated whether standardized change scores on the German version of the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease-Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (CERAD-NAB) could be used for early diagnosis of AD and whether change scores on the CERAD-NAB are superior in this respect to scores recorded on 1 occasion only. Three hundred seventy-four normal control subjects were assessed twice. Data from 95 patients with mostly mild probable AD were collected at their first entry to a memory clinic and an average of 1.1 +/- 0.24 years later. It is concluded that repeated testing with the CERAD-NAB does not generally add to improved diagnostic accuracy for mild and very mild AD and cannot, therefore, be recommended as a routine clinical procedure.