Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Artigo Produção Nacional Revisado por pares

BIBTEX RIS

P2‐179: Missing the diagnosis of dementia: a frequent scenario in Brazil

2010; Wiley; Volume: 6; Issue: 4S_Part_12 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jalz.2010.05.1227

1552-5279

José M. Farfel, Renata Eloah de Lucena Ferretti‐Rebustini, Lea T. Grinberg, Renata Elaine Paraízo Leite, Kátia C. Oliveira, Claudia K.S. Zoriki, Edilaine Tampeline, Glaucia Bento, Lívia Polichiso, Rafael Emidio, Maria do Carmo Lima, Carlos Augusto Pasqualucci, Ricardo Nitríni, Wilson Jacob Filho, Brazilian Aging Brain Study Group,

Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research

Despite the growing prevalence of dementia in developing countries, the diagnosis of this syndrome is frequently unrecognized by patients, relatives and clinicians who accredit its cognitive decline to the aging process. The objective of this study was to estimate the number of individuals suffering from dementia who were not diagnosed throughout their lives in a Brazilian sample. A post-mortem study evaluating individuals suffering from dementia, aged 50 years or older, included in the Brain Bank of the Brazilian Aging Brain Study from University of Sao Paulo. The next of kin informant should have at least weekly contact with the individual who died and was questioned if the relative had the diagnosis of dementia throughout life. Cognitive evaluation was gathered afterwards with the same informant using a semi-structured interview including the Clinical Dementia Scale (CDR) and the Informant Questionnaire on Cognitive Decline in the Elderly (IQCODE). Individuals were considered as demented if presented a CDR ≥ 1 and an IQCODE > 3.50. From the 161 cases analyzed, 41 (25.5%) had a CDR = 1, 44 (27.3%) had a CDR = 2 and other 76 (47.2%) had a CDR = 3. The informant referred a previous diagnosis of dementia in 58 individuals (36.0% of the sample). According to the informant, the diagnosis of dementia in life was made in 19.5%, 20.5% and 53.9% of the individuals diagnosed in the post-mortem evaluation as having CDR = 1, 2 and 3, respectively (p < 0,001). None of the individuals who had unrecognized dementia was receiving specific pharmacological treatment for this condition. Dementia is rarely appropriately diagnosed in the Brazilian population, especially in the mild and moderate phases of disease