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The cognitive complaint interview (CCI)
Author(s) -
THOMASANTÉRION Catherine,
HONORÉMASSON Sandrine,
LAURENT Bernard
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
psychogeriatrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.647
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1479-8301
pISSN - 1346-3500
DOI - 10.1111/j.1479-8301.2006.00129.x
Subject(s) - complaint , dementia , feeling , memory clinic , psychology , cognition , mood , clinical psychology , anosognosia , psychiatry , depression (economics) , memory impairment , disease , medicine , cognitive impairment , social psychology , political science , law , economics , macroeconomics
Background: The objective is to devise a cognitive complaint interview (CCI) that can be used in the early stages of dementia. The interview consists in two questions about general memory functioning and eight questions about more particular cognitive complaints: a ‘yes’ response to one of these questions reflects what we refer to as a memory complaint. The administration of this interview takes approximately 10 min. Methods: One hundred and ninety‐five interviews were conducted. We studied 73 normal subjects, 73 patients (Alzheimer's disease (AD), n = 49; depression, n = 24) and 49 caregivers for AD patients. Results: The number of ‘yes’ responses in the CCI was not accounted by age, gender, educational level or Mini‐Mental State Examination. Only the AD subgroup presents more general complaints than the control subgroup. Only three out of the 73 controls (<4.1%) complained more than three times, which suggests that a complaint score superior to three (obviously without mood, social or sensorial explanations) should lead to additional testing. The AD patient's feelings may be similar to those of his family. Nevertheless, once the patient has a clear dementia syndrome, the patient and/or their caregiver may stop complaining and develop an anosognosia. Conclusion: This CCI could constitute a tool to provide an etiological explanation of the memory complaints.