Detection and staging of early clinical dementia

In order to find neuropsychological indicators for detection and staging of dementia, groups of very mild, mild, and moderate dementia were compared to healthy aged individuals in neuropsychological tests tapping various cognitive and finger-motor functions. Results showed that the groups differed significantly in all cognitive tests, but not in the finger-motor tests. A stepwise disriminant analysis indicated that detection of very mild dementia was best accomplished by three tests assessing episodic memory, semantic memory, and visuospatial functioning. Staging of dementia was best accomplished by means of only one canonical function based on tests tapping episodic memory, semantic memory, visuospatial functions, and psychomotor speed. These results indicate that the pattern of dysfunction is similar for different levels of dementia, suggesting that similar cognitive functions may be involved in detection and staging of dementia.