Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

In reply

1996; Wiley; Volume: 44; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.1532-5415.1996.tb05651.x

1532-5415

Shawn A. McGivney, Michael Mulvihill, Brian Taylor,

Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research

Editors note: This letter was referred to the authors of the original article, and their reply follows. In reply: While we enjoyed the letter from Dr. Royall and colleagues, we feel that they are reading too much into our paper. What we wished to demonstrate is that the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is a useful screening instrument for depression in newly admitted nursing home residents with Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE) scores of 15 or greater. The idea was that if an older person was unable to answer many of the questions on the MMSE, then his or her responses on the GDS would probably not be valid as well. Stated alternatively, the question we were addressing was how many errors on the MMSE would render the GDS invalid. Our purpose was not to make a differential diagnosis of dementia nor to diagnose depression. Rather we wanted to provide practical clinical guidelines for the identification (by non-psychiatrists) of a subpopulation at high risk for depression so that they could be referred to a psychiatrist for a depression work-up. Moreover, we don't believe that the distinction between “cortical” and “non-cortical” dementias is done as a matter of routine in nursing home populations. We appreciate Dr. Royall et al.'s interest in our paper and wish him well with his research. Note: The authors thank the Geriatrics Dept. at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, the Jewish Home and Hospital, and the Ageless Foundation for their support with this research.