Objective Evaluate the accuracy of two semantic categories of the verbal fluency test (supermarket and animal categories) to separate healthy elderly individuals and lower educated Alzheimer’s disease patients. Methods We evaluated 69 older adults with less than 5 years of schooling, consisting of 31 healthy elderly, and 38 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Semantic verbal fluency was evaluated using the animal and supermarket categories. Mann-Whitney U and Independent t Tests were used to compare the two groups, and the diagnostic accuracy of the tests was analyzed by sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratio’s, and the Area Under the Curve (AUC). Results We found a significant difference between the healthy older and Alzheimer’s disease groups, in both, animal (p = 0.014) and supermarket verbal fluency (p < 0.001). The supermarket category showed better overall diagnostic accuracy (AUC = 0.840, 95% CI = 0.746-0.933; p < 0.001) compared to the animal category (AUC = 0.671, 95% CI = 0.543-0.800; p = 0.014). Conclusion The supermarket category of semantic verbal fluency provides better accuracy than the animal category for the identification of dementia in a Brazilian elderly population with low educational level.

IntroductionThe presence of cognitive dysfunction in bipolar disorder is well established, but in the euthymic phase appear a few studies that point to the absence of cognitive deficits.ObjectivesAlert to cases of euthymic bipolar disorder with no cognitive dysfunction.MethodsReview of relevant literature and description of a clinical case with psychological tests that assess memory and executive functions.ResultsDescription of a clinical case: FP is a middle age woman, early retired, with a bipolar disorder type 2, which begins at age 30.Her disease has several depressive episodes, and in the last 10 years, she spent most of the days lying in bed and repeatedly resorted to the emergency department for excessive voluntary drug intoxication or simply because she “wanted” to be hospitalized; her husband could not stand this situation. In September of 2009, in addition to the medical and psychological consultations, she starts attending group therapy; over the next 6 months her medication was changed and finally her disease goes into remission.The psychological tests, made at euthymic phase, show’s no significant deficits in verbal memory and executive functions.ConclusionsThis patient has a disease with prolonged course and multiple hospitalizations and drug treatments, but don’t present relevant cognitive deficits, which may point to the fact that cognitive impairment is determined by biological factors.