I. Measuring the decline of a population of people with early-onset dementia in Lothian, Scotland

✍ Scribed by Kirstie Woodburn; Eve Johnstone

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 205 KB
• Volume: 14
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6230
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1166(199905)14:5<355::aid-gps913>3.0.co;2-p

✦ Synopsis

Objective. To seek dierences in the pattern of decline between groups of patients with early-onset dementia of varying aetiologies (clinically de®ned) on the basis of the investigation of their dierent clinical pro®les.

Design. A cohort of 126 live patients with dementia diagnosed before the age of 65, of various aetiologies, were identi®ed using the Lothian Psychiatric Case Register. Each person was seen for two assessments approximately 1 year apart.

Setting. Patients were either in long-term care (NHS or other) or at home, usually in the care of relatives.

Patients. Of 126 cases (53 male, 73 female, mean age at referral 58 years), 114 met the diagnostic criteria for DSM-III-R dementia: 60 Alzheimer's type dementia; 13 multi-infarct dementia; 14 alcohol-related dementia; with 25 in a mixed group of overlapping categories and two in `other' dementia types. By the second assessment, 18 cases had died and two cases refused reassessment.

Measures. The data collected included: demographic; behavioural and psychopathological; neurocognitive; neurological; and genetic. Change was assessed.

Results. The alcohol group was distinguished from the other groups by its generally milder pro®le of impairment and a pattern of change indicating some areas of improvement in the follow-up period.

Conclusions. There are limitations in the instruments used to measure change in this group of patients; at present, measures of change in dementing illnesses cater predominantly for an elderly population with Alzheimer's disease.