Dementia Screening

Excerpt

To the editors: The review of dementia screening and evaluation by Siu (1) was well done. To be a useful clinical guide for the practicing physician, however, two points need to be emphasized.

First, the use of a criterion-based definition of dementia is essential. The major source of error in diagnosing dementia is in properly assessing its presence or absence. O'Connor and colleagues (2) demonstrated in a large community survey with extensive clinical evaluation that 42% (87 of 208) of demented patients were not recognized as demented by their personal physician. They also found that 22% (51 of 236) of