[Awareness of disease in dementia: preliminary results in patients with mild and moderate Alzheimer's disease].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the presence and the level of awareness of disease in mild and moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD).


METHODS
Cross-sectional evaluation of patients with mild/moderate AD (n=42) assessed by Assessment of Psychosocial Impact of the Dementia Diagnosis (APSID), Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE) and Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR).


RESULTS
Awareness of disease and its consequences were present in 66.7% patients with mild AD (n=18). In moderate AD (n=24), 20.8% presented total awareness, 45.8% presented only awareness of cognitive symptoms. Unawareness of disease was observed in 33.3%.


CONCLUSIONS
The present data show association between awareness and level of severity of disease. CDR 1 patients show a better recognition of cognitive and daily life activity symptoms, whereas CDR 2 patients recognized their cognitive symptoms but failed to appraise their severity and consequences in daily life activities.
Dourado
Márcia
M
IPUB, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. marciacndourado@terra.com.br
Laks
Jerson
J
Rocha
Marlos
M
Soares
Claudia
C
Leibing
Annette
A
Engelhardt
Eliasz
E
D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology*; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012720:Severity of Illness Index