Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T19:50:24.476Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Study of Mild Dementia in the Community Using a Wide Range of Diagnostic Criteria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

B. J. Mowry  and
P. W. Burvill
B. J. Mowry*
Affiliation:
Clinical Research Unit, Graylands Hospital, Western Australia
P. W. Burvill
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Science, The University of Western Australia, and Royal Perth Hospital
*
∗Clinical Research Unit, Graylands Hospital, Brockway Road, Mt Claremont, Western Australia 6010
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The result of, and difficulties in, applying a range of existing criteria for mild dementia to a random sample of community elderly aged 70 years and over is examined. By one or more criteria, 25% had mild dementia, and almost 30% of these had additional psychiatric disorders, mostly depression. Prevalence rates for mild dementia varied widely according to the different criteria. Rates of mild dementia increased with age. Poor specification of diagnostic criteria was a major problem. These criteria should be standardised and detailed, and prospective longitudinal studies conducted to elicit the natural history of this condition.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 153 , Issue 3 , September 1988 , pp. 328 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1988 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn) (DSM–III), Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Anthony, J., Le Resche, L., Niaz, U., Von Korff, M. & Folstein, M. (1982) Limits of the “Mini-Mental State” as a screening test for dementia and delirium among hospital patients. Psychological Medicine, 12, 397–408.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bergmann, K. (1985) Epidemiological aspects of dementia and considerations in planning services. Danish Medical Bulletin, 32 (suppl. 1), 84–91.Google ScholarPubMed
van der Cammen, T. J. M., Simpson, J. M., Fraser, R. M., Preker, A. S. & Exton-Smith, A. N. (1987) The Memory Clinic. A new approach to the detection of dementia. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 359–364.Google Scholar
Cooper, B. & Bickel, H. (1984) Population screening and the early detection of dementing disorders in old age: a review. Psychological Medicine, 14, 81–95.Google ScholarPubMed
Copeland, J. R., Kelleher, M. J., Kellett, J. M., Gourlany, A. J., Gurland, B. J., Fleiss, J. L. & Sharpe, L. (1976) A semi-structured clinical interview for the assessment of diagnosis and mental state in the elderly: the Geriatric Mental State Schedule. I. Development and reliability. Psychological Medicine, 6, 439–499.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Copeland, J. R., Dewey, M. E., Wood, N., Searle, R., Davidson, I. A. & McWilliam, C. (1987) Range of mental illness among the elderly in the community: prevalence in Liverpool using AGECAT. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 815–823.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eaton, W. W., Regier, D. A., Locke, B. Z. & Taube, C. A. (1981) The epidemiologic catchment area program of the National Institute of Mental Health. Public Health Report, 96, 319–325.Google ScholarPubMed
Essen-Moller, E. (1956) Individual traits and morbidity in a Swedish rural population. Acta Psychiatrica et Neurologica Scandinavica, Suppl. 100, 1–160.Google Scholar
Ewing, J. A. (1984) Detecting alcoholism, the CAGE questionnaire. Journal of the American Medical Association, 252, 1905–1907.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Folstein, M., Folstein, S. & McHugh, P. (1975) ‘Mini-Mental State’: a practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 189–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folstein, M., Anthony, J., Parhad, I., Duffy, B. & Gruenberg, E. (1985) The meaning of cognitive impairment in the elderly. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 33, 228–235.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gruenberg, E. (1978) Epidemiology of senile dementia. Advances in Neurology, 19, 437–457.Google ScholarPubMed
Gurland, B. J., Kuriansky, J., Sharpe, L., Simon, R., Stiller, P. & Birkett, P. (1977) The Comprehensive Assessment and Referral Evaluation (CARE) – rationale, development and reliability. International Journal of Ageing and Human Development, 8, 9–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gurland, B. J., Dean, L., Copeland, J., Gurland, B. & Golden, R. (1982) Criteria for diagnosis of dementia in the community elderly. Gerotonologist, 22, 180–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gurland, B. J., Copeland, J., Kuriansky, J., Kelleher, M., Sharpe, L. & Lee Dean, L. (1983) The Mind and Mood of Ageing: Mental Health Problems of the Community Elderly in New York and London. New York: Haworth.Google Scholar
Gurland, B. J., Golden, R. R., Teresi, J. A. & Challop, J. (1984) The short CARE: an efficient instrument for the assessment of depression, dementia and disability. Journal of Gerontology, 39, 166–169.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henderson, A. S. (1986) The epidemiology of Alzheimer's disease. British Medical Bulletin, 42, 3–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henderson, A. S. & Huppert, F. A. (1984) The problem of mild dementia. Psychological Medicine, 14, 5–11.Google ScholarPubMed
Henderson, A. S. & Kay, D. W. K. (1984) The epidemiology of mental disorders in the aged. In Handbook of Studies of Psychiatry and Old Age (eds Kay, D. W. & Burrows, G.). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.Google Scholar
Huppert, F. A. & Tym, E. (1986) Clinical and neuropsychological assessment of dementia. British Medical Bulletin, 42, 11–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jorm, A. F., (1986) Controlled and automatic information processing in senile dementia: a review. Psychological Medicine, 16, 77–88.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jorm, A. F. & Henderson, A. S. (1985) Possible improvements to the diagnostic criteria for dementia in DSM–III. British Journal of Psychiatry, 147, 394–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaneko, Z. (1969) Epidemiological studies on mental disorders of the aged in Japan. In Proceedings of 8th International Congress of Gerontology. I. Abstracts of symposia and Lectures. Washington, D.C. International Association for Gerontology, pp. 284–287.Google Scholar
Kay, D. W. K. & Bergmann, K. (1980) Epidemiology of mental disorders among the aged in the community. In Handbook of Mental Health and Ageing (eds Birren, J. E. & Sloane, R. B.). Englewood-Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Kay, D. W. K., Beamish, P. & Roth, M. (1964) Old age mental disorders in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Part 1. A study of prevalence. British Journal of Psychiatry, 110, 146–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, D. W. K., Henderson, A. S., Scott, R., Wilson, J., Rickwood, D. & Grayson, D. A. (1985) Dementia and depression among the elderly living in the Hobart community: the effect of the diagnostic criteria on prevalence rates. Psychological Medicine, 15, 771–788.Google ScholarPubMed
Kral, V. A. (1962) Senescent forgetfulness: benign and malignant. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 86, 257–260.Google ScholarPubMed
Kral, V. A. (1978) Benign senescent forgetfulness. In Alzheimers' Disease: Senile Dementia and Related Disorders (eds Katzman, R., Terry, R. D. & Bicks, K. L.). New York: Raven Press.Google Scholar
Nielsen, J. (1962) Geronto-psychiatric period prevalence investigation in a geographically delimited population. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 38, 307–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, J., Homma, A. & Biorn-Henriksen, T. (1977) Follow-up 15 years after a geronto-psychiatric prevalence study. Conditions concerning death, causes of death and life expectancy in relation to psychiatric diagnosis. Journal of Gerontology, 32, 554–561.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Parsons, P. L. (1965) Mental health of Swansea's old-folk. British Journal of Preventive Social Medicine, 19, 43–47.Google Scholar
Pfeffer, R. I., Kurosaki, T. T., Harrah, C. H. J., Chance, J. M., Bates, D., Detels, R., Filos, S. & Butzke, C. (1981) A survey diagnostic tool for senile dementia. American Journal of Epidemiology, 114, 515–527.Google ScholarPubMed
Regier, D. A., Myers, J. K., Kramer, M., Robins, L. N., Blazer, D. G., Hough, R. L., Eaton, W. W. & Locke, B. Z. (1984) The NIMH Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) Program: Historical content, major objectives and study population characteristics. Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 934–941.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shibayama, H., Kasahara, Y. & Kobayaski, H. (1986) Prevalence of dementia in a Japanese elderly population. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 74, 144–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weissman, M. M., Myers, J. K., Tischler, G. L., Helzer, C. E. III, Leaf, P. J., Orwaschel, H. & Brody, J. A. (1985) Psychiatric disorders (DSM–III) and cognitive impairment among the elderly in a US urban community. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 71, 366–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, J., Stoke, I. M., Gray, S., Fisher, M., Smith, A., McGhee, A. & Stephenson, E. (1964) Old people at home: their unreported needs. The Lancet, i, 1117–1120.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974) The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
World Health Organization (1978) Mental Disorders: Glossary & Guide to their Classification in Accordance with the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD–9). Geneva: WHO.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.