The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry
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Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · Dec 2014
Subjective cognitive concerns and neuropsychiatric predictors of progression to the early clinical stages of Alzheimer disease.
To examine neuropsychiatric and neuropsychological predictors of progression from normal to early clinical stages of Alzheimer disease (AD). ⋯ These results identify affective and memory-semantic factors as significant predictors of more rapid progression from normal to early stages of cognitive decline and highlight the subgroup of cognitively normal elderly with SCC as those with elevated risk of progression to MCI.
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Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · Dec 2014
Delirium diagnosis methodology used in research: a survey-based study.
To describe methodology used to diagnose delirium in research studies evaluating delirium detection tools. ⋯ Significant variability exists in reference standard methods for delirium diagnosis in published research. Increasing standardization by documenting inter-rater reliability, using standardized cognitive and delirium detection tools, incorporating diagnostic expert consensus panels, and using all available information in patients declining or unable to participate with formal testing may help advance delirium research by increasing consistency of case detection and improving generalizability of research results.
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Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · Dec 2014
Observational StudyDepressive symptoms, symptom dimensions, and white matter lesion volume in older adults: a longitudinal study.
White matter lesions (WMLs) are associated with depressive symptoms in older adults. However, it is not clear whether different symptom dimensions of depression have distinct associations with WMLs. The authors assessed the longitudinal relationships of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) total score and subscale scores with WML volume in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. ⋯ Findings confirm an association between WMLs and depressive symptoms and suggest that depressed mood and somatic symptoms may be stronger predictors of depression-related brain changes than lack of well-being. Age and sex may moderate the relationships between depressive symptoms and WMLs. Understanding particular symptom dimensions of depressive symptoms has implications for treatment and may lead to targeted interventions and more precise knowledge of mechanisms underlying depression.
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Am J Geriatr Psychiatry · Dec 2014
Observational StudyDelirium detection based on monitoring of blinks and eye movements.
To investigate whether delirious patients differ from nondelirious patients with regard to blinks and eye movements to explore opportunities for delirium detection. ⋯ Spontaneous eye movements and particularly blinks appear to be affected in delirious patients, which holds promise for delirium detection.