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Severity and Specificity of Cognitive Impairment in Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's Diseases and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
Author(s) -
PILLON BERNARD,
DUBOIS BRUNO,
AGID YVES
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1991.tb00222.x
Subject(s) - progressive supranuclear palsy , dementia , alzheimer's disease , degenerative disease , psychology , disease , medicine , cognition , cognitive impairment , parkinson's disease , dementia with lewy bodies , pediatrics , psychiatry
To investigate differences in severity and specificity of cognitive impairment among various neurodegenerative diseases, we tested groups of patients presenting with senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type (SDAT) (n = 44), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) (n = 45), Huntington's disease (HD) (n = 35), and Parkinson's disease (PD) (n = 164), with an extensive neuropsychologic battery. We found dementia, as defined by a global intellectual performance 2 SD lower than mean control values, in 93% of patients with SDAT, 66% of patients with HD, 58% of patients with PSP, and 18% of patients with PD. Specific features of cognitive impairment distinguished the four groups of patients once they were matched for level of intellectual deterioration. This study shows the frequency of dementia in predominantly subcortical degenerative diseases and indicates that "subcortical dementia," rather than being a homogeneous entity, should be divided into specific subtypes of cognitive impairment related to different underlying pathology.