No abstract

Considerable heterogeneity exists in the criteria used for the establishment of stages of impairment for patients with dementia. The valid distinction of stages is important both for clinical interpretation and the study of dementia. This study reports on the use of the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale (DRS) in staging dementia. Using a sample of 42 patients diagnosed with Alzheimer-type dementia, DRS performance and a rating of Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) were compared with clinical ratings of dementia severity. Total DRS score provides a clinically valid measure of stage of impairment and appeared to provide a better distinction among stages than IADL score. However, use of the IADL score in conjunction with total DRS may improve correspondence with clinical staging over use of the total DRS score alone. Normative data for the DRS are also provided.

No abstract

As part of a standard evaluation of neuropsychological sequelae, the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) was administered to 107 patients with a history of traumatic brain injury. Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted on the 12 subtests of the WMS-R to examine the fit of various hypothesized factor patterns, including patterns identified in previous exploratory factor analytic studies. Because part of the correlation between immediate and delayed recall trials of the same material is attributable to a common measurement procedure, this correlation due to measurement commonality was partialled out of the conceptual factor structure. The results suggested the presence of 3 distinct but highly correlated factors: attention/concentration, immediate memory, and delayed recall. Models that posited separate verbal and nonverbal memory processes failed to improve fit over more parsimonious models. Comparisons with previous factor analytic studies and implications for clinical assessment are discussed.