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PubMed · 15096405

Executive dysfunction in Alzheimer disease.

Margaret M Swanberg·Rochelle E Tractenberg·Richard Mohs·Leon J Thal·Jeffrey L Cummings
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Executive dysfunction (EDF) is common in Alzheimer disease (AD); however, its relationship to other symptoms is difficult to assess in patients with AD. OBJECTIVES: To determine the prevalence of EDF and study its relationship to cognitive, functional, and neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with AD. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS: A retrospective analysis of data from participants in the English Instruments Protocol of the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study. Subjects were drawn from a sample of patients evaluated at tertiary referral centers. RESULTS: A total of 64% of AD patients were classified as having EDF. Patients with EDF performed worse on tests of cognition (P <.001), dementia severity (P <.001), and activities of daily living (P =.01) and had more frequent symptoms of psychosis (P =.03) with greater emergence during the 12-month interval (P =.03) compared with patients with normal executive function. Less than 30% of the variance in executive function performance was explained by cognitive measures. CONCLUSION: These findings support the assessment of executive function in persons with AD and the importance of frontal lobe dysfunction in AD.

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Activities of Daily LivingAgedAlzheimer DiseaseAttentionCognition DisordersCross-Sectional StudiesDiscrimination LearningFemaleFrontal LobeHumansMaleMental Status ScheduleMiddle AgedNeuropsychological TestsProblem SolvingPsychometricsReference ValuesRetrospective StudiesStatistics as TopicJournal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tResearch Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

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Margaret M Swanberg, Rochelle E Tractenberg, Richard Mohs, Leon J Thal, Jeffrey L Cummings. 2004. Executive dysfunction in Alzheimer disease.. https://doi.org/10.1001/archneur.61.4.556

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