Diagnostic instruments differentiating dementia--depression

It is an overall knowledge, that dementia and depression are the most common diagnosis in old age psychiatry. This fact has long since been known, in fact first descriptions of cognitive disorders during the course of endogenous depression can already be found at the beginning of the century in works of Gaupp and Kraepelin. On the other hand there are depressive symptoms in people with later evident dementia that can be found years before cognitive disorders are evident. These short introductory remarks show the need of early diagnosis to enable us to more efficient therapy. The following paper gives a survey of the recent and efficient diagnostic possibilities for practible clinical work as well as it shows new research aspects in this field.