Psychometric discrimination of moderate senile dementia of the Alzheimer type
R. D. Hill, M. Storandt and E. LaBarge
Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, Washington University, St Louis, MO.
A brief psychometric battery was used to differentiate a sample of 56
individuals classified as having mild senile dementia of the Alzheimer type
(SDAT) from 38 individuals with moderate SDAT. Using discriminant analysis
techniques, a modest differentiation was obtained. It was noted that
specific ability domains, namely, short-term recognition memory,
visuospatial reasoning, and verbal ability, contributed to the discriminant
function. Although the same domains have been found to differentiate SDAT
at earlier stages, individual tests varied in the current sample as a
function of marked decrements in ability levels at this advanced stage of
the disease. The results suggest that the effectiveness of specific
psychometrics for differentiating individuals with SDAT may vary as a
function of relative disease stage.
