CROSS-CULTURAL COGNITIVE EXAMINATION PERFORMANCE IN PATIENTS WITH PARKINSONS-DISEASE AND ALZHEIMERS-DISEASE

Performance profiles of patients with different dementia syndromes (Al zheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease) were compared with each oth er and with those of neurologically impaired and healthy individuals w ithout dementia on a new instrument for screening dementia, the Cross- Cultural Cognitive Examination (CCCE). The CCCE measures discriminated reliably between nondemented and demented patients, regardless of eti ology. Comparisons between dementia groups found that dementia patient s with Parkinson's disease (PD) showed more severe psychomotor slowing and depression, compared with patients with, Alzheimer's disease, who showed more impaired recall of recently learned verbal information an d verbal abstract reasoning. The CCCE also distinguished between the m otor and affective symptoms that are common to all PD patients and the dementia symptoms that occur in some PD patients. These results provi de further support for the clinical utility of the CCCE for discrimina ting dementia from normal cognitive functioning and for initial identi fication of different dementia syndromes.