Abstract
Dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) is a disorder that is becoming more common as the population's life expectancy increases. It is essential for health care providers to monitor and help caregivers manage possible stressful symptoms associated with the progression of DAT. We evaluated 38 community dwelling DAT patients with a test battery comprised of several commonly used neuropsychological instruments to see if they could:
• detect treatable psychiatric symptoms
• predict the course of illness and
• predict the likelihood of long term institutionalization in DAT patients
Our results showed that the interviewer administered instruments were useful tools for detecting patient deficits and developing treatment strategies. However, we found the self-rating scales to be inappropriate for use with this population.
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