Distinguishing between vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease by means of the WAIS: a meta-analysis.

Full Abstract

This study was intended to, meta-analytically, review whether the subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale are useful in differentiating between vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease. We expected the Alzheimer's disease group to outperform the vascular dementia group on those subtests that require executive functions, whereas inferior performance of the Alzheimer's disease patients was expected on memory tests. Two steps in the analysis were undertaken in an attempt to clarify this issue. The first step consisted of including all studies examining Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale subtest performance in vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease patients. Secondly, a subcortical vascular dementia subgroup was distinguished and performance of this subgroup was compared to that of the Alzheimer's disease group.Overall, the analyses showed that both the vascular dementia and, more strongly, the subcortical vascular dementia group revealed decreased executive functions on several subtests compared to the Alzheimer's disease group. The Alzheimer's disease group showed inferior performance on a single semantic memory test only compared to both the vascular dementia and the subcortical vascular dementia groups. These results indicate that several subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale can differentiate between these two clinical groups, and that most of these tests reveal more impaired performance in the vascular dementia group.

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Author information

Author/s: Oosterman, Joukje M (JM); Scherder, Erik J A (EJ);

Affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuropsychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. jm.oosterman(-atsign-)psy.vu.nl

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology (J Clin Exp Neuropsychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Oct; vol 28 (issue 7) : pp 1158-75

Dates: Created 2006/07/14; Completed 2006/09/19; Revised 2008/04/14;

PMID: 16840242, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Aged
Alzheimer Disease - diagnosis; physiopathology
Cognition - physiology
Dementia, Vascular - diagnosis; physiopathology
Female
Humans
Learning - physiology

Learning - physiology
Male
Mental Status Schedule - statistics & numerical data
Meta-Analysis as Topic
Middle Aged
Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data
Wechsler Scales

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