In the course of a four-month study of interventions for behavioral disturb
ances in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients, the following assessment instru
ments were examined for validity: the clinical global impression of change
(CGIC), Cohen-Mansfield agitation inventory (CMAI); CERAD behavioral rating
scale for dementia (BRSD), revised memory and behavioral problems checklis
t (RMBPC) and the agitated behavior in dementia scale (ABID). The four spec
ific behavioral/agitation scales had excellent cross-sectional and longitud
inal correlations with each other, suggesting high validity, but changes as
indicated by CGIC scores did not correlate well with change scores on the
other instruments. We conclude that specific behavioral for detecting and q
uantifying behavioral disturbances in AD instruments are preferable to the
more general CGIC patients. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reser
ved.