Differentiation between dementia and depression among older persons: can the difference between actual and premorbid intelligence be useful?
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.
Dierckx
Eva
E
Developmental and Lifespan Psychology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, Brussels, Belgium. eva.dierckx@vub.ac.be
Engelborghs
Sebastiaan
S
De Raedt
Rudi
R
Van Buggenhout
Michael
M
De Deyn
Peter Paul
PP
Verleye
Gino
G
Verte
Dominique
D
Ponjaert-Kristoffersen
Ingrid
I
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