Background: In the progression of their disease, Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients have been observed to demonstrate various clinical features reminiscent of children. Based on behavioral, neurological and neuropathological findings, Reisberg et al. noted the relationships between development and dementia and proposed the ‘retrogenesis’ model.
Methods: The functional assessment staging procedure (FAST) was used for assessment of functional ability, and the Tanaka–Binet intelligence scale (TB scale) was used to assess intellectual ability in 24 patients with moderate to severe AD.
Results: Overall, there was a significant Spearman's correlation between the FAST stage and the basic age (BA) value (r = −0.85, P < 0.01). The BA by the TB scale was significantly different between FAST stages 5 and 6 to 7. The mean (standard error [SE]) BA values of FAST stages 5 and 6 were 4.2 (0.9) and 2.3 (0.7), respectively, the latter being significantly lower than the former (F = 10.2, P < 0.01 one‐way anova). The TB scale could not assess the BA of the FAST stage 7 patients because of floor effects.
Conclusion: Although further investigation using larger samples would be needed, the findings support the general concordance of intellectual and functional decline in AD with the converse developmental acquisition of the same capacities, as hypothesized in the retrogenesis model.
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