title: Differentiation between dementia and depression among older persons: can the difference between actual and premorbid intelligence be useful?
abstract: We wanted to investigate whether the difference between actual and premorbid intelligence can be useful to make an early differentiation between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and depression among elderly. A Dutch version of the National Adult Reading Test (NLV), a measure of premorbid IQ and the Raven Coloured Progressive Matrices (RCPM), a measure of actual intelligence were administered to patients with mild (34) and moderate (27) AD, depressed elderly (36) and healthy control subjects (51). Logistic regression analyses revealed that intellectual decline (i.e. subtracting NLV percentile score from RCPM percentile score) was only able to predict group membership when moderate AD patients were compared to depressed and healthy individuals. Our results indicate that intellectual decline may not be a concomitant of elderly depression. However, the differentiation between mild AD and elderly depression can not be made by means of the difference between premorbid (NLV) and actual (RCPM) intelligence scores.
authors.affiliation: Developmental and Lifespan Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, Brussels, Belgium. eva.dierckx@vub.ac.be
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dierckx
authors.forename: Sebastiaan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Engelborghs
authors.forename: Rudi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: De Raedt
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Van Buggenhout
authors.forename: Peter Paul
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: De Deyn
authors.forename: Gino
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Verleye
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Verte
authors.forename: Ingrid
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ponjaert-Kristoffersen
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000523:psychology*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence / Q000502:physiology*; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon