A controlled study of the prevalence of cognitive dysfunction in randomly selected patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the prevalence of cognitive dysfunction in randomly selected patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).


METHODS
Randomly selected, ambulatory patients with SLE (n = 49) or with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (n = 40) completed neuropsychological tests. These included Associate Learning, Switching Attention, Continuous Performance, Associate Recall, Hand-Eye Coordination, Pattern Comparison, Pattern Memory, the Stroop Color and Word Test, and the Symptoms Checklist-90R. Results were evaluated by multiple linear regression analysis.


RESULTS
SLE patients had poorer performance than RA patients on the test of attention (P = 0.002) and tests of visuospatial ability (P = 0.03) and P = 0.04), independent of age, education, or steroid use. The conservative level of statistical significance, adjusting for multiple comparisons, was 0.005. SLE patients reported more symptoms of cognitive difficulty.


CONCLUSIONS
Cognitive dysfunction is common in ambulatory SLE patients as measured by standardized tests and is a cause of distress and impaired functioning. Self-reported cognitive difficulty appears to correlate with objective performance.
Ginsburg
K S
KS
Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
Wright
E A
EA
Larson
M G
MG
Fossel
A H
AH
Albert
M
M
Schur
P H
PH
Liang
M H
MH
D000328:Adult; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000150:complications*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016018:Least-Squares Analysis; D016014:Linear Models; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D011897:Random Allocation; D012044:Regression Analysis