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The Progression of Mild Idiopathic Dementia in a Community Population
Author(s) -
O'Connor DW,
Pollitt PA,
Hyde JB,
Fellowes JL,
Miller ND,
Roth M
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of the american geriatrics society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.992
H-Index - 232
eISSN - 1532-5415
pISSN - 0002-8614
DOI - 10.1111/j.1532-5415.1991.tb01645.x
Subject(s) - medicine , dementia , medical diagnosis , psychiatry , gerontology , cognitive test , population , cognition , test (biology) , pediatrics , disease , paleontology , environmental health , pathology , biology
Thirty‐one subjects aged 75 years and over who were identified as suffering from mild, idiopathic dementia in a large community survey were reviewed at annual intervals for 2 years. Diagnoses and severity ratings were based on defined criteria following a mental state examination, a medical and psychiatric history, detailed cognitive testing, and an interview with relatives or other key informants. Fourteen subjects became more severely demented within 2 years. The initial cognitive test battery failed to reveal any differences between respondents whose dementia advanced and those whose condition remained unchanged, but, in the former group, subjects' symptoms had been present for longer, and a greater proportion had been recognised as demented, or possibly demented, by their general practitioners. We suggest that subjects whose dementia progressed had actually been more severely disabled at the time of identification.