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Psychopharmacology Bulletin › All Volumes & Issues › VOL 35 No. 3 › Informant-Rated Cognitive Symptoms...
GENERAL PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY

Informant-Rated Cognitive Symptoms in Normal Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Dementia

K. Ranga R. Krishnan, MD, Robert M. Levy, BS, H. Ryan Wagner, PhD, Gene Chen, BS, Kenneth Gersing, MD, and P. Murali Doraiswamy, MD
Psychopharmacology Bulletin 35(3) :79-88 , 2001/07/15

Abstract

An informant-rated cognitive screen may have the potential to reliably help detect early dementia. A valuable scale should have good interitem associations and strong reliability when tested in groups with and without cognitive impairment. Our scale, the Brief Cognitive Scale (BCS), consists of 18 questions designed to assess cognitive function that affects everyday activities. Each question is coded with one of four levels, ranging from no impairment to severe impairment. We administered this screen to 120 subjects: 26 controls, 28 with a diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 66 with a diagnosis of dementia. In addition, we administered a Folstein Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) to each subject. Our results showed that the BCS scores were lowest in the control group and highest in the dementia group. In our sample, this scale was effective at discriminating between subjects with no cognitive impairment, MCI, and dementia. However, the scale needs further refinement before it can be employed in a clinical setting. Psychopharmacology Bulletin 2001;35(3):79-88.

Keywords

alzheimer’s disease, dementia, memory, mild cognitive impairment, normal subjects, scale

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How to Cite

K. Ranga R. Krishnan, MD, Robert M. Levy, BS, H. Ryan Wagner, PhD, Gene Chen, BS, Kenneth Gersing, MD, and P. Murali Doraiswamy, MD. Informant-Rated Cognitive Symptoms in Normal Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Dementia. Psychopharmacology Bulletin. 2001/07/15; 35(3):79-88.