Detecting depression in Alzheimer's disease: evaluation of four different scales.

  • Tomas Müller-Thomsen
  • Sönke Arlt
  • Ulrike Mann
  • Reinhard Mass
  • Stefanie Ganzer

Abstract

Depression is a frequent condition in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The prevalence of depressive symptoms depends on the severity of dementia and the instruments used. Our aim was to assess the prevalence of depression dependent on the severity of dementia by four different scales: The 15-point Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), the Montgomery and Asperg Depression Scale (MADRS), the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) and the Nurses Observation Scale for Geriatric Patients (NOSGER). The study population consisted of 316 patients with Alzheimer's disease from a psychiatric out-patients memory-clinic, which was divided into two groups: mild AD (Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) > or = 18) and moderate to severe AD (MMSE

Bibliographical data

Original languageGerman
Article number2
ISSN0887-6177
Publication statusPublished - 2005
pubmed 15708735