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Objective: To determine the sensitivity and specificity of three depression screening scales to diagnose major depressive episodes in the elderly. Methods: Participants (n=129, 88% female) answered a semi-structured psychiatric interview (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview) to determine the diagnosis of major depressive disorder. After this, depressive symptoms in depressed and non-depressed subjects were assessed by independent administration of the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15), Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), and 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression . Results: Patients with major depression and controls did not differ in age and gender distribution. The sensitivity and specificity of all scales to identify a major depressive episode in older adults were X 90%. There were no significant differences between the areas under the curve for PHQ-9 vs. HDRS-17 (z = 1.2, p = 0.2), PHQ-9 vs. GDS-15 (z = 0.26, p = 0.8), or HDRS-17 vs. GDS-15 (z = 1.2, p = 0.2). Conclusion: This study provides evidence supporting the use of PHQ-9 and GDS-15, both of which are simple to administer and easy to interpret, to diagnose major depressive episodes in older adults without neurocognitive disorders.

The Stick Design Test shows evidence of construct, criterion-related and ecological validity. It is an interesting alternative to drawing tasks for the assessment of visuospatial abilities.

Aim: In this manuscript, we report data on the association between executive functions screened by Frontal Assessment Battery, Five Digit Test and Digit Span with self-reported depressive symptoms and sleep complaints in non-demented older adults.Methods: A total sample of 95 non-demented older adults performed Geriatric Depression Scale short version, Frontal Assessment Battery, Five Digit Test, Digit Span, and clinical interview. We split participants in groups stratified by age according to: young-old (60–69 years of age), old-old (70–79 years), and oldest-old (>80 years) and compared these three groups on the sociodemographic characteristics and executive functions performance. We carried out Poisson regression with robust error variance to verify sleep complaints and depression effects on executive functions performance. Gender, age, years of formal education, use of antidepressants and of benzodiazepines were considered as confounding variables, taking into account executive functions as dependent and sleep complaints and depression as independent variables.Results: Controlling the effect of age, gender, years of formal education, use of benzodiazepines and of antidepressants there was a significant influence of depression in motor programming, inhibitory control, and working memory. Individuals without depression show motor programming scores 68.4% higher, inhibitory control scores 3 times greater and working memory scores also 3 times greater than individuals without depression. There was a significant influence of sleep complaints in phonemic fluency, motor programming, inhibitory control, and working memory. Individuals without sleep complaints show phonemic fluency scores 2 times greater than, motor programming scores 85.9% higher, inhibitory control scores 3 times greater and working memory scores also 3 times greater than individuals without sleep complaints.Conclusions: Sleep complaints are associated with phonemic fluency, motor programming, inhibitory control, and working memory impairment. Depression symptoms presence are associated with motor programming and working memory performances. Depression and sleep complaints interaction would determine worse phonemic fluency, inhibitory control and working memory cognitive performance than these two conditions alone.

Objective:The assessment of visuospatial abilities and memory using tasks such as the Taylor Complex Figure Task (TCFT) is biased for older adults with low formal education. We devised a "Simplified" version of the TCFT designed to assess older adults with low educational background and provide preliminary evidence of its psychometric properties. Methods:We evaluated a heterogeneous sample of healthy older adults and patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease dementia using the simplified TCFT and other neuropsychological measures. Results:Our results suggest that the test copy, immediate and delayed recall have high inter-rater agreement and internal consistency, significant correlations with other tests of visuospatial abilities, memory and intelligence, and also detected significant group differences between controls and patients. Conclusion:Our study presents a new measure for assessing low-educated elderly with promising evidence of validity and reliability.

Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers are of great relevance in clinical research, especially after the AT(N) framework. They enable early diagnosis, disease staging and research with new promising drugs, monitoring therapeutic response. However, the high cost and low availability of the most well-known methods limits their use in low and medium-income countries. In this context, Millipore xMap® Luminex may be a cost-effective alternative. In our study, using INNOTEST® as reference, we assess the diagnostic accuracy of Millipore xMap® and propose a cutoff point for AD.Methods: We performed lumbar puncture of seven older individuals with clinically defined AD, 17 with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) and 11 without objective cognitive impairment-control group (CG). Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers concentrations for aB42, p-Tau, and t-Tau were measured by INNOTEST® and Millipore xMap®, and then the techniques were compared to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the new test and to define a cutoff.Results: INNOTEST® and Millipore xMap® measurements showed all correlations >0.8 for the same biomarker, except for t-Tau that was 0.66. Millipore xMap® measurements showed a robust accuracy for all biomarkers, with AUC higher than 0.808 (t-Tau), and the best for Aβ42 (AUC = 0.952). The most accurate cutoffs were found at 1012.98 pg/ml (Aβ42), 64.54 pg/ml (p-tau), 3251.81 pg/ml (t-tau), 3.370 (t-Tau/Aβ42), and 0.059 (p-Tau/Aβ42).Conclusion: Given its good accuracy and cost-effectiveness, Milliplex xMap® tests seems a reliable and promising tool, especially for low and middle-income countries.

Objective: The present study investigates the difference between trials A6 and A7 of the Rey Auditory-Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) test in three different groups of older adults-normal cognition (Controls), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer's Dementia (AD). Method: The study comprises 180 subjects 60 years old or more. We compared scores in trials 6 and 7 of list A (A6 and A7) using the Wilcoxon signed ranks test. Subsequently, we computed its difference (A6-A7) and used Mann-Whitney to analyze which groups' differences were more relevant. Results: Comparison analysis showed a significant difference between A6 and A7 trial performance only in the AD group ( p < .01). When we compared these differences between groups, the only significant difference occurred between controls and AD ( p < .01). Conclusions: There is a significant difference in RAVLT trials A6 and A7 in the AD group, but this difference does not appear in the control and the MCI groups. The differences between A6 and A7 trials of RAVLT are restricted to comparing Controls × AD patients. Our study corroborates the instrument's effectiveness for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's dementia.

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an intermediate condition between a normal cognition and dementia. The Brazilian elderly population has been recognized as a low education level one. Moreover, there have been few studies evaluating conversion rate to dementia in the Brazilian population. Methods: We conducted a cohort of individuals with aMCI and controls with normal cognition aged over 60 years, which were recruited between 2010 and 2016. The participants were annually evaluated by geriatricians and neuropsychologists trained in cognitive assessment. The categorical data were analyzed by chi-squared test and Fisher test and means comparison by T student, Anova, Mann Whiney e Kruskal-Wallis tests. Risk factors were evaluated using binary logistic regression analysis. We used the statistical package SPSS version 20.0 (IBMÒ). Results: Out of 306 individuals initially recruited for inclusion criteria, only 176 participants were selected (53 were in the control group, 111 in amnestic group and 12 in nonamnestic group), with mean age of 75.3167.25 years, 69.3% female, all had 4.1063.41 years of education. We detected 28 cases of conversion from aMCI or normal cognition (26 cases from aMCI and 2 cases from normal cognition) to dementia (92.9% Alzheimer's dementia) after a mean period of 3.0161.43 years of follow up (annually mean ratio from aMCI was 8.67%). By means of multivariate analysis, the conversion risk factors to dementia were the result of Mattis Dementia Rating Scale, subtopic memory, [OR: 1.20 (95%