Journal

The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

[Vol.25 No.3 contents]
Japanese/English

Full Text of this Article
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ArticleTitle The annual rate of cognitive decline in Alzheimer's disease: an analysis of the rates for the first and the second year in the subtests of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS)
Language J
AuthorList Masaaki Momose1), Fumika Isobe2), Chie Usuki1), Atsushi Sato3), Toru Imamura1)4)
Affiliation 1)Department of Speech Therapy, School of Health Sciences, Niigata University of Health and Welfare
2)Department of Rehabilitation, Saiseikai Kanazawa Hospital
3)Division of Speech Therapy, Department of Rehabilitation
4)Department of Neurology, Niigata Rehabilitation Hospital
Publication Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 25 (3), 237-243, 2009
Received Jan 5, 2009
Accepted Apr 13, 2009
Abstract Objectives: To evaluate the decline of various cognitive arrays in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: We studies 56 AD patients in the memory clinic of Niigata Rehabilitation Hospital. All the patients scored 10 or more on the initial assessment with Mini-mental state examination (MMSE). We assessed the patients with MMSE and Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS), and repeated the assessment one-year and two-years after. The annual rates of change on the scores of MMSE, total ADAS and each ADAS subtest were compared between for the first and the second year. Results: The annual rate of change in the first year was significantly lower than that in the second year for the scores of MMSE (0.0±2.2 for the first year and -1.6±2.4 for the second year), total ADAS (0.3±4.4 for the first year and 3.1±4.7 for the second year) and the Ideational Praxis subtest of ADAS (-0.6±1.6 for the first year and 0.8±1.4 for the second year). Conclusion: The Ideational Praxis subtest of ADAS represents executive function. We assume that the systematic and non-medical interventions for the patients improve cognitive disuse syndrome, resulting in the slower decline of executive function for the first year. Executive function may be vulnerable for cognitive disuse syndrome and can be a plausible target for non-medical interventions.
Keywords Alzheimer's disease, Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS), mini-mental state examination (MMSE), annual rate of change, executive function

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