Differentiation of the Dementias of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Disease with the Dementia Rating Scale

Document Type

Article

Abstract

The Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS) was used to distinguish between 50 dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT) and 50 Parkinson's disease (PD) subjects matched for age, education, and DRS total score. Despite a similar level of overall cognitive impairment, the DAT group earned significantly lower scores than did the PD group on the Memory subscale, while the PD group displayed lower scores than did the DAT subjects on the Construction subscale. A jackknifed, stepwise, linear discriminant function using the five DRS subscales revealed that the Memory, Construction, and Initiation subtests significantly distinguished the groups. These results suggest qualitative differences in the dementias of DAT and PD patients and reveal that such differences can emerge on brief mental status examinations. © 1995, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.

Publication Date

1-1-1995

Publication Title

Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology

ISSN

08919887

E-ISSN

15525708

Volume

8

Issue

3

First Page

184

Last Page

188

PubMed ID

7576044

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1177/089198879500800308

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