The Trail Making Test (TMT) is a useful measure of executive dysfunction in elderly subjects. This study aims to investigate the discriminative validity of the oral version of the TMT (OTMT), which can be administered to subjects with visual or motor disabilities, in elderly patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI; n = 30), Alzheimer's disease (AD; n = 30), and healthy controls (HCs; n = 25). The WAIS-R Digit Span Backwards Subscale, written form of the Trail Making Task, the Clock Drawing Test, the AD Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale, and the OTMT were also administered to all participants in order to examine the concurrent validity of the OTMT. The OTMT part B discriminated between patients with MCI, AD, and HC correctly. The OTMT completion time was not correlated with age, but was negatively correlated with education. In conclusion, the OTMT (mostly part B) is a valid and practical measurement tool for different levels of cognitive impairment, especially for patients with visual or motor disabilities for whom the classical written form is not feasible.
Older GAD patients had more disturbances of sleep, less reassurance seeking behaviors, higher rates of depression and higher depression severity when compared to the young patients. Although older people seemed to have a lower severity of GAD, they had higher disability due to worries. Older patients worried more about their own health and family well-being, whereas young patients worried more about future and other's health.
The aim of this study was to investigate the dimensions of agitation in dementia patients using the Turkish version of the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI-T). Materials and Method: The study included 100 patients diagnosed as dementia, according to the DSM-IV-TR. The CMAI-T was administered to the patients' caregivers via face-to-face interviews. The Standardized Mini Mental State Examination (SMMSE) was used to assess cognitive functions. The severity of depression and the functional state of the patients were assessed using the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) and the Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ). Principal component analysis and varimax rotation were used to determine the factor structure of the CMAI-T. Results: Factor analysis of the CMAI-T indicated a 3-factor structure: physically aggressive agitation, verbal agitation, and physically non-aggressive agitation. In 92% of the patients there was ≥1 agitation behavior during the previous 2 weeks. The CMAI-T total and factor scores were negatively correlated with the SMMSE scores, and positively correlated with the CSDD and the FAQ scores. Conclusions: The CMAI-T yielded 3 factors (physically aggressive agitation, verbal agitation, and physically non-aggressive agitation), which indicated the scale had construct validity. Agitation behaviors were associated with cognitive dysfunction, symptoms of depression and general level of functioning. Additional research is necessary to identify the predictors of these dimensions in different dementia samples, and to determine the efficacy of therapeutic interventions.
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