Amnestic behavior in dementia: symptoms to assist in early detection and diagnosis

This study evaluated two amnestic behavior changes (repetitive questioning and repetitive actions) to determine their utility in screening for early dementia.

Patient data were collected through a retrospective chart review. Comparison data from nondemented older people were collected prospectively from acquaintances of clinic patients.

The setting was a hospital-based outpatient memory disorder clinic.

Participants were older individuals with no cognitive impairment (n = 25), undetermined dementia (n = 50), and definite dementia (n = 25). The undetermined cases were followed for at least 1 year to assess for conversion to dementia.

Amnestic behaviors were assessed using informant-report for all participants. The behaviors were examined for their ability to distinguish between definite dementia cases and noncases. They were further evaluated for the ability to differentiate undetermined cases that eventually converted to definite dementia from cases that did not convert.

Results indicated that repetitive behaviors were common in early and more-severe dementia cases. Repetitive behaviors were relatively uncommon in cognitively intact older participants. In analyses of the full study sample, engagement in repetitive behaviors had high sensitivity (0.97) in identifying dementia cases.

Assessing repetitive behaviors in patients may be a useful means for family members and primary care physicians to screen for early cognitive impairment. The assessment can help to identify individuals that should be evaluated further for dementia.