Assessment of intellectual function in dementing disorders: Validity of WAIS-R short forms for patients with Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's disease

Abstract

While commonly administered in the neuropsychological assessment of dementia, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) is excessively long (70–90 min) and difficult for many patients. The present study examined WAIS-R data from patients with clinically distinct dementing disorders, including those with Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's disease (N=148). The profiles of performance of these three patient groups across subtests were remarkably similar, suggesting that the use of a short form would not result in the loss of clinically significant information. The validity of several published short forms was reviewed. Although all of these systematically over- or underestimated Full Scale IQ for these patients, after a scaling table revision the Kaufman (1990) form appears to provide an accurate estimate of IQ. The use of this short form is therefore recommended to minimize frustration and fatigue on the part of the patient, and to allow the inclusion of other tests critical to the evaluation of dementia within a single assessment session.