Cognitive outcome measures

Clinical trials of antidementia drugs must use a performance-based cognitiv e assessment as a primary outcome measure. There are well-established crite ria for selecting or developing an optimal cognitive battery for Alzheimer disease (AD) trials that also apply to vascular dementia (VaD) trials. Beca use there is substantial overlap between the pattern of cognitive impairmen t in VaD and AD, the most efficient strategy for developing a VaD battery w ould be to begin with a well-established AD instrument and add subtests cov ering the additional domains that are more prominently impaired in VaD.