While doctors already have a couple of questionnaires that can help them identify possible Alzheimer's disease, many of these tests only detect problems when the disease has progressed beyond the mildest stages.That's one reason that seven psychologists developed the Everyday Cognition Scale (ECog), a 39-item screening tool that identifies problems in everyday living and functioning that could signal cognitive problems such as Alzheimer's.
The psychologists carefully validated the scale and published the results in the July issue of Neuropsychology. The ECog was developed to be sensitive enough to differentiate normal cognitive functioning, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and dementia. The scale is also unique because a person's score is not heavily influenced by educational level, which has been a problem with previous tests.
The ECog asks a person who knows the older person well -- usually a spouse or adult child -- to rate the older person on his or her ability to perform daily tasks such as sorting the mail, using a map, and following a conversation.
I'm encouraged by the ECog and hope that it proves to be useful in primary care settings and in neuropsychologists' offices as a method of improving diagnosis of Alzheimer's and other dementias and choosing appropriate treatments.
Photo © Administration on Aging
How many people in the study have undiagnosed adhd or a combination of adhd and MRI/dementia? There is a very high probability that there are a lot of 65+ adhd’ers that would easily fall into the MRI or dementia category since there adult children are only being diagnosed today because of their grandchildren.
Thanks so much for your comment. Here’s the link to the actual article, which describes the participants in more detail:
http://www.apa.org/journals/releases/neu224531.pdf
It does not state if any of the participants had ADHD, but it does say that each one had a complete neuropsychiatric workup, which it seems would have detected issues such as ADHD, depression, etc.