Diagnosing Dementia Without Brain Scans

Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe any neurodegenerative disorder that affects cognitive functioning, and has many subtypes. These subtypes typically have symptoms that overlap, which can make diagnosis quite difficult. It is essential that patients are given accurate diagnoses for their neurodegenerative disorder, as treatment is dependent upon the condition. The authors of this paper wanted to examine how accurate current neuropsychological tests are at differentiating between Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and Frontal-Temporal Dementia (FTD). The authors hypothesized that neuropsychological tests that measure language and memory will be most accurate in differentiating scores between AD and FTD.

Over a period of 5 years, researchers recruited 87 participants with a neurodegenerative disorder to this study. Participants were administered a full neuropsychological exam, which consists of tests that measure memory, language, motor skills, attention, and executive functioning. Participants scores were scaled, and the scaled scores were compared to their normative sample. The results of the study found that participants score on various sections of the neuropsychological exam allowed for differentiation of diagnosis. For example, participants with AD scored poorly on recall for all memory tests, while participants with FTD did not. Researchers also found that these tests could also differentiate between subtypes of FTD.

This research is essential for validating the assessment methods neuropsychologists have in place for diagnosis and treatment. Without accurate diagnosis, patients with neurodegenerative disorders will not receive effective treatment. By proving their hypothesis, researchers were able to provide strong support for the continued use of these neuropsychological tests to aid in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.

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Source:

• Pozuetaa, A., Lagea, C., Garcia-Martineza, M., Kazimierczaka, M., Bravoa, M., Lopez- Garciaa, S.,...Sanchez-Juana, P. (2019). Cognitive and Behavioral Profiles of Left and Right Semantic Dementia: Differential Diagnosis with Behavioral Variant Frontotemporal Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. Retrieved from DOI 10.3233/JAD-190877.