Date of Award

1996

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Accurate differential diagnosis between Dementia of the Alzheimer's Type (DAT) and depression is important in providing appropriate treatment to persons suffering from each of these disorders; however, accurately differentiating between these disorders is often problematic. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the Smell Identification Test (SIT) could accurately distinguish between persons with DAT; depressed, non-demented elderly; and elderly controls. The sample consisted of three groups of 30 white subjects matched for age, gender, and smoking behavior. Group I consisted of persons with early DAT. Group II consisted of persons diagnosed as suffering from depression and Group III consisted of non-depressed, non-demented controls. The null hypothesis was tested by a one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan's Multiple Range Test. Results suggested that persons with DAT scored significantly lower on the SIT than did either the depressed or control groups. Depressed subjects did not differ significantly from control subjects on the SIT. The DAT group also gave a higher rate of "don't know" responses and made more intrusion errors than did subjects in the other groups. While the depressed group gave more "don't know" responses than the control group, over half of these responses were given by a single subject. Current results suggest that the SIT may have clinical utility in differentiating person with DAT from those suffering from depression. While additional research is needed in this area, it would appear that both a high number of "don't know" responses and intrusion errors on the SIT may be pathognomic for DAT.

Download

Share

COinS