The INECO Frontal Screening tool differentiates behavioral variant - frontotemporal dementia (bv-FTD) from major depression

Abstract

Executive dysfunction may result from prefrontal circuitry involvement occurring in both neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders. Moreover, multiple neuropsychiatric conditions, may present with overlapping behavioral and cognitive symptoms, making differential diagnosis challenging, especially during earlier stages. In this sense, cognitive assessment may contribute to the differential diagnosis by providing an objective and quantifiable set of measures that has the potential to distinguish clinical conditions otherwise perceived in everyday clinical settings as quite similar.OBJECTIVEThe goal of this study was to investigate the utility of the INECO Frontal Screening (IFS) for differentiating bv-FTD patients from patients with Major Depression.METHODSWe studied 49 patients with bv-FTD diagnosis and 30 patients diagnosed with unipolar depression compared to a control group of 26 healthy controls using the INECO Frontal Screening (IFS), the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R).RESULTSPatient groups differed significantly on the motor inhibitory control (U=437.0, p<0.01), verbal working memory (U=298.0, p<0.001), spatial working memory (U=300.5, p<0.001), proverbs (U=341.5, p<0.001) and verbal inhibitory control (U=316.0, p<0.001) subtests, with bv-FTD patients scoring significantly lower than patients with depression.CONCLUSIONOur results suggest the IFS can be considered a useful tool for detecting executive dysfunction in both depression and bv-FTD patients and, perhaps more importantly, that it has the potential to help differentiate these two conditions.

Emotion recognition and cognitive empathy deficits in adolescent offenders revealed by context-sensitive tasks

“…We used the Institute of Cognitive Neurology (INECO) Frontal Screening test (IFS; Torralva et al, 2009b ), which assesses frontal lobe function as indexed by the following subtasks: motor programming, conflicting instructions, Verbal Inhibitory Control, Abstraction Ability (proverbs interpretation), Backward Digit Span, Spatial Working Memory, and Go/NoGo. This task has been used with different neuropsychiatric populations ( Torralva et al, 2009b , 2012 ; Fiorentino et al, 2013 ; Baez et al, 2014b ) A mean total score is calculated from the sum of the subtask scores (30 points). A 25-point cutoff score has shown a sensitivity of 96.2% and a specificity of 91.5% in detecting patients with dysexecutive syndrome ( Torralva et al, 2009b ).…”

Utility of the INECO frontal screening (IFS) in the detection of executive dysfunction in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS)

“…Several studies have demonstrated the usefulness of one screening tool specifically designed to probe executive functions: the IFS [22,26,27,29]. Here, we examine the properties of the IFS as an executive screening test for patients with RRMS.…”

“…Importantly, this brief screening test probes executive functions in particular, and it provides useful information about frontal functioning by tapping different executive processes, such as verbal and motor inhibitory control, verbal and visual working memory, and abstraction ability, among others. It has also been shown useful in the detection of executive dysfunction in other neurological and psychiatric conditions such as unipolar depression [26], bipolar disorder, and attentional and hyperactivity disorder [27]. Several studies have already reported on the usefulness of this instrument in different populations, reporting relatively high levels of specificity and sensitivity for a screening tool [22], along with a higher ability than other executive screening tools to discriminate between different types of dementia [28], between dementia and depression [26], and to detect executive dysfunction in patients with attention deficit disorder [21,29].…”

“…It has also been shown useful in the detection of executive dysfunction in other neurological and psychiatric conditions such as unipolar depression [26], bipolar disorder, and attentional and hyperactivity disorder [27]. Several studies have already reported on the usefulness of this instrument in different populations, reporting relatively high levels of specificity and sensitivity for a screening tool [22], along with a higher ability than other executive screening tools to discriminate between different types of dementia [28], between dementia and depression [26], and to detect executive dysfunction in patients with attention deficit disorder [21,29]. However, no previous study has investigated its utility in detecting executive dysfunction in patients with MS, who as stated above, tend to primarily and very frequently show this form of cognitive impairment.…”

Neuropsychologiczna ocena funkcji wykonawczych – przegląd

“…W zamyśle autorów testu IFS jest narzędziem oceny funkcji wykonawczych w chorobach neurodegeneracyjnych [24]. Znajduje ponadto zastosowanie w diagnostyce dysfunkcji wykonawczych w psychiatrycznych jednostkach chorobowych -schizofrenii, depresji, chorobie afektywnej dwubiegunowej, ADHD [25][26][27].…”