Aims: The objective is to propose a brief method to evaluate anosognosia in Alzheimer's disease (AD) using the Symptoms of Early Dementia-11 Questionnaire (SED-11Q), a short informant-based screening questionnaire for identifying dementia.
Methods: The participants were 107 elderly individuals: 13 with a Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) of 0.5, 73 with mild AD of CDR 1, and 21 with moderate AD of CDR 2. The patients and caregivers answered the SED-11Q independently, and the degree of discrepancy indicated the severity of anosognosia.
Results: THE SCORES WERE AS FOLLOWS: caregiver scores were 2.46 ± 1.85 (mean ± SD) in CDR 0.5, 6.36 ± 3.02 in CDR 1, and 9.00 ± 1.14 in CDR 2; patient scores were 2.00 ± 1.78, 2.55 ± 2.33, and 1.33 ± 2.46, respectively. Discrepancy was 0.46 ± 1.61, 3.81 ± 3.95, and 7.67 ± 2.87, respectively, and the caregiver assessments were significantly higher than the patient assessments in CDR 1 and CDR 2 (p < 0.001 in both groups). The SED-11Q for anosognosia was validated with the standardized Anosognosia Questionnaire for Dementia (AD-Q). The caregiver scores were moderately correlated with behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia scores (r = 0.524), and the patient scores were moderately correlated with depression scores (r = 0.561).
Conclusion: The SED-11Q serves a dual purpose: caregiver assessment is useful for the screening of dementia, and any discrepancy between the patient and the caregiver assessment is considered as an indication of the severity of anosognosia; this can be informative for caregivers and essential for successful care.
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; Anosognosia; Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia; Caregiver burden; Dementia; Dementia care; Metacognition; Mild cognitive impairment; Screening test.