Although older patients repeatedly...

Although older patients repeatedly complain of cognitive deficits, it is uncertain whether so complaints have clinical significance. Dufouil and colleagues examined whether increased cognitive complaints cogitate previous or future cognitive decline.

The authors used data from the population-based, longitudinal Epidemiology of Vascular Aging reflection Participants were 59 to 71 years of age. Patients received a baseline examination, were reexamined after four years, and were examined annually thereafter.

The four-year questionnaire was complet through 733 participants. One half of the thought participants completed the Cognitive Difficulties Scale, which rates subjective cognitive complaints, at the four-year follow-up examination. They also were proofed for objective cognitive function using the Mini-Mental State Examination. single outed participants received magnetic resonance imaging to identify the carriage of white matter hyperintensities. All participants also were evaluated for depression using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale.

Higher ranks of cognitive complaints were associated with depression, use of psychotropic medication, and lower education flush They also were associated with greater cognitive decline at the four-year follow-up a correlation that was independent of depressive symptoms. At the six-year follow-up 555 of the 733 living bodys who completed the questionnaire brace years earlier were examined. There was a greater cognitive decline in participants who had had more cognitive complaints. This held truthful even in those who had not had any objective cognitive decline from baseline to four years and regardless of whether they did or did not have identifiable cognitive deficit at four years. Participants with strict white matter changes and higher cognitive complaints had greater cognitive decline than other patients.

The authors finish that cognitive complaints predict cognitive decline, and this come to passs independently of baseline cognitive status. They also originate that complaints reflect previous cognitive decline. Thus, cognitive complaints may be more sensitive than findings in succession objective measures, and such complaints should be taken seriously.

CAROLINE WELLBERY, MD Dufouil C et al. Subjective cognitive complaints and cognitive decline: conclusion or predictor? The Epidemiology of Vascular Aging investigation J Am Geriatr Soc April 2005;53:616-21

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