Family observations of everyday cognitive impairment in dementia

The observations made by family members of cognitive impairment and decline serve an important role in the description of dementia-related illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease. A common clinical practice is to interview the family and informally gather information about the severity and history of intellectual impairment such as memory disorder and aphasia. The present study introduces a method to formalize this information gathering using an inventory that allows a family member to rate the presence and severity of the everyday manifestations of dementia. Results of initial psychometric studies of the rating scale indicate that a family member can make reliable judgments of everyday cognitive impairment. Observér ratings such as these should significantly enhance diagnostic efforts when they are used in conjunction with neuropsychological tests and in cases in which the demented person cannot participate in a full neuropsychological evaluation.