Premium
P2‐249: UTILITY OF THE PILLBOX TEST AS AN INDICATOR OF IMPAIRED FUNCTIONAL PERFORMANCE IN A MIXED CLINICAL SAMPLE
Author(s) -
Hilsabeck Robin C.,
Marceaux Janice,
McCoy Karin J.M.
Publication year - 2014
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.2014.05.926
Subject(s) - test (biology) , psychology , construct validity , raw score , medicine , clinical psychology , psychometrics , statistics , mathematics , raw data , paleontology , biology
Background: Impaired Verbal Fluency (VF) is frequently observed in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). To elucidate the relationship between the evolution of cognitive decline and VF, we analyzed the neuropsychological profiles longitudinally in elderly AD patients. Methods: The present study was based on 80 patients with AD. Their mean age was 79.6 years. Neuropsychological tests including the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Zung Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS), Starkstein Apathy Scale (SAS), VF test (VFT) were carried out repeatedly with one-year interval. According to the performance in VF, the patients were classified into two groups: 40 subjects showed full marks on VFT and 40 subjects who didn’t get full marks. Results: The baseline VF correlated positively with the total MMSE score and immediate recall, and SAS (p<0.05). Those with full marks on VFT showed higher spontaneity and their total MMSE score was stable over time, whereas those who sis not get full marks on VFT showed poor spontaneity and deterioration in total MMSE score.Conclusions: It was suggested that apathy (poor spontaneity) was associated with impaired VF and functional deterioration in elderly AD patients.