International journal of geriatric psychiatry
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Int J Geriatr Psychiatry · Dec 2007
Conversion of amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment to dementia of Alzheimer type is independent to memory deterioration.
Mild Cognitive Impairment defines a transitional stage between normal ageing and dementia, and reflects the clinical situation where a person has memory complaints and objective evidence of cognitive impairment but no evidence of dementia. To plan the care of patients with MCI, it is important to predict as accurately as possible potential risk factors modulating the conversion to AD. ⋯ In subjects with aMCI poor global cognitive performance at baseline, the worsening on executive functions and on functional status but not the worsening on memory functions are independently associated with the conversion to dementia of Alzheimer type at 1 year, follow-up.
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Int J Geriatr Psychiatry · Nov 2007
An evaluation of two self-report screening measures for mood in an out-patient chronic heart failure population.
To examine the criterion validity of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Geriatric Depression Scale 15-item (GDS-15) in a community sample of Chronic Heart Failure (CHF) out-patients. ⋯ The GDS-15 and HADS are valid screening tools for detecting depression in aged CHF out-patients. However, use of the HADS requires reduced cut-points to ensure that patients with mood disorder are not missed in this population.
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Int J Geriatr Psychiatry · Oct 2007
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudySubthreshold depression in patients with Parkinson's disease and dementia--clinical and demographic correlates.
About 40% of the patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) have depressive symptoms, either major depression (MD) or subthreshold depression. Depression was found to be associated with age and age at onset of PD, female gender, more severe parkinsonism, in particular with left-sided and akinetic-rigid symptoms, more functional impairment and cognitive impairment.However, the findings are inconsistent and partly contradictory and most of the studies focused on major depression in PD without dementia. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between subthreshold depression and other clinical features in 538 PD patients with dementia but without MD drawn from a randomized, placebo-controlled multicentre trial of rivastigmine in PD. ⋯ In contrast to previous findings in PD patients with major depression but without dementia, we found no relationship between subthreshold depression and other clinical symptoms in patients with PDD.
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Int J Geriatr Psychiatry · Jul 2007
APOE and cytokines as biological markers for recovery of prevalent delirium in elderly medical inpatients.
Delirium frequently occurs in the context of infection and other inflammatory conditions associated with elevated levels of cytokines. Cytokines used therapeutically can induce symptoms of delirium as an adverse effect. We hypothesized that a causal relationship might exist between delirium and cytokine production during illness. Further, we speculated that the APOE genotype of patients might influence their rate of recovery from delirium given that APOE is associated with amyloid deposition, increased susceptibility to exogenous neurotoxins, and can affect the immune response. ⋯ A relationship between delirium with APOE genotype, IFN-gamma, and IGF-I, but not with IL-6, IL-1, TNF-alpha, and LIF was found. A predictive model of recovery was derived from gender, APOE status, and IGF-I levels. This model needs replication with further studies.