LONDON

By health-newswire.com reporters

The three-item Pocket Smell Test (PST) effectively distinguishes between individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and major depression in older adults, according to a recent US report. Dr Kevin Duff and colleagues from the State University of New York evaluated 20 patients with Alzheimer’s, 20 with vascular dementia and 20 with major depression using the PST to determine whether there were significant differences in response between groups. Participants also completed the Mini-Mental State Examination. The researchers found that Alzheimer’s patients could be differentiated from vascular dementia and depressed patients because they were significantly more likely to have a score of 1 or 0 as opposed to greater than 1. Classification accuracy had 100 per cent sensitivity and 92.5 per cent specificity. Dr Duff and colleagues conclude that assessment of impaired sense of smell may be of use when differentially diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia and major depression.

Reference: Duff et al, Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience 2002;14:197-201
© Health Media Ltd 2002
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