Open AccessPseudo-dementia: A neuropsychological review
Author(s) -
Hai Kang,
Fengqing Zhao,
Llbo You,
Cinzia Giorgetta,
D Venkatesh,
Sujit Sarkhel,
Ravi Prakash
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
annals of indian academy of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.427
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1998-3549
pISSN - 0972-2327
DOI - 10.4103/0972-2327.132613
Subject(s) - dementia , neuropsychology , confusion , cognition , medical diagnosis , medicine , executive functions , depression (economics) , psychology , psychiatry , cognitive psychology , neuropsychological assessment , clinical psychology , disease , pathology , psychoanalysis , economics , macroeconomics
Ever since Kiloh (1961)[2] coined the term pseudo-dementia, it has been used a little loosely for describing the cognitive deficits in depression, especially, which is found in old age. However, several diagnostic dilemmas persist regarding the nosological status of this condition. Teasing out these individual diagnostic problems is important not only for administering appropriate therapy, but also for preventing them from the unnecessary diagnostic assessments towards the other diagnoses. Thus, it is important to have a detailed knowledge of the cognitive or neuropsychological deficits in this condition. In this review, we start by addressing the important issue of diagnostic confusion between dementia and pseudo-dementia. Subsequently, we proceed by reviewing the present scientific literature on the cognitive deficits found in this clinical condition. For the sake of convenience, we will divide the cognitive deficits into: Memory deficitsExecutive function deficits andDeficits in speech and language domains. Finally, we will look at the progression of this condition to see the components of this condition, which can be actually called "Pseudo".