title: Overdiagnosis of dementia in young patients - a nationwide register-based study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little is known about the quality of the diagnostic evaluation and the validity of dementia diagnoses in young patients established in routine clinical practice. The aim of this study was to investigate the validity of the diagnosis of dementia registered in the Danish nationwide hospital registers in young patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two hundred patients were randomly selected from 891 patients <65 years registered with a dementia diagnosis for the first time in 2008. The patients' medical records were reviewed to evaluate if they fulfilled ICD-10 and/or DSM-IV criteria for dementia and current clinical criteria for specific dementia subtypes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A registered diagnosis was found to be correct in only 59%. A misdiagnosis of dementia occurred primarily in patients with depression or alcohol abuse.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest that dementia is overregistered and overdiagnosed in young patients. This may be due to a different symptom profile of dementia in young patients, lack of knowledge among clinical physicians and the wide range of conditions which may be misinterpreted as dementia.
authors.affiliation: Memory Disorders Research Group, Danish Dementia Research Center, Department of Neurology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. lise.salem@rh.regionh.dk
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Salem
authors.forename: B B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Andersen
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Stokholm
authors.forename: M B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Jørgensen
authors.forename: M H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Rasmussen
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Waldemar
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D060825:Cognitive Dysfunction / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D003704:Dementia / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D003951:Diagnostic Errors / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011153:Population; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents