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A Typology of Sub-Clinical Senescent Cognitive Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Karen Ritchie ,
Didier Leibovici ,
Bernard Ledésert  and
Jacques Touchon
Karen Ritchie
Affiliation:
INSERM Equipe “Vieillissement cognitif”, CRLC Val d'Aurelle, Parc Euromédecine, 34298 Montpellier Cedex 5. Fax: (33) 67613047
Didier Leibovici
Affiliation:
INSERM Equipe “Vieillissement cognitif”, CRLC Val d'Aurelle, Parc Euromédecine, 34298 Montpellier Cedex 5. Fax: (33) 67613047
Bernard Ledésert
Affiliation:
INSERM Equipe “Vieillissement cognitif”, CRLC Val d'Aurelle, Parc Euromédecine, 34298 Montpellier Cedex 5. Fax: (33) 67613047
Jacques Touchon
Affiliation:
INSERM Equipe “Vieillissement cognitif”, CRLC Val d'Aurelle, Parc Euromédecine, 34298 Montpellier Cedex 5. Fax: (33) 67613047
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Abstract

Background

Cognitive impairment without dementia is commonly observed in ageing populations. The present study aims to describe types of impairment and evolution over a one-year period.

Method

Three hundred and ninety-seven normal French elderly persons demonstrating recent, observable change in cognitive performance were examined annually using a computerised cognitive examination.

Results

Five subtypes were differentiated by cluster analysis. Two of the groups were predicted by logistic regression to be at high risk of senile dementia. Of 16 incident cases of senile dementia diagnosed in the following year, 13 were found to have derived from these two groups. The typology was also found to be useful in the description of age-associated memory impairment.

Conclusions

Subclinical cognitive impairment was found to not constitute a unitary phenomenon and heterogeneous subgroups could be differentiated. The concept of ‘normality’ in elderly cohorts is reconsidered in the light of these findings.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 168 , Issue 4 , April 1996 , pp. 470 - 476
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1996 

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