Quantifying behavioral disturbance in Alzheimer's disease patients

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.