PROGRESSION AND OUTCOME OF PATIENTS IN A CANADIAN DEMENTIA CLINIC

Five hundred and fifty-three patients were referred to a Canadian deme ntia clinic for standardized evaluation. The majority (83.5%) had a de mentia with Alzheimer's disease (AD) accounting for 89% of dementias. Patients with probable AD who were followed for five years had variabl e rates of progression, increased mortality (37.1%, 2.5 times the expe cted rate) and a high rate of institutionalization (79%). Simple demog raphic (age) and social factors (marital status) were strong predictor s for institutionalizatian. It was extremely difficult at presentation to predict the rate of progression. The prevalence of AD in autopsied cases was 62.5%. Clinic patients were younger, had milder dementias, and were more likely to have AD than patients identified in the course of a contemporaneous population-based dementia prevalence study.