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The Importance of Measuring Executive Function When Studying the Effects of Cognition-Enhancing Agents
- Parminder Raina, PhD;
- Pasqualina L. Santaguida, PhD; and
- Christopher Patterson, MD
- From McMaster University, Hamilton L8S 4M1, Ontario, Canada.
IN RESPONSE:
We thank Dr. Rockwood for his thoughtful and perceptive response to our review. We completely agree that aggregate scores on instruments that do not measure executive function may fail to capture useful improvements in individuals receiving cholinesterase inhibitors or other cognition-enhancing agents. Of the many attempts to isolate meaningful individual responses to treatment, goal attainment scaling is among the most sensitive and robust. Although “listening to patients” is not always a means of determining outcome and is rarely quantified in as rigorous a manner as advocated by Dr. …
