Qualitative differences in vocabulary performance of Alzheimer versus depressed patients

Abstract

The aim of this study is to compare qualitative differences in the language abilities of Alzheimer's disease, depressed, and normal elderly subjects. A previously developed qualitative scoring system for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) Vocabulary Subtest was used. Alzheimer patients were found to give poor explanations as definitions more frequently than did the depressed and normal subjects who did not differ from one another. Also, the Alzheimer patients tended to give superior synonyms as definitions less frequently than did the other two groups. These findings are consistent with a clinical descriptive model of Alzheimer's disease, which includes language deficits as part of the disorder. This language pattern may have clinical application to the detection of early language changes in Alzheimer's disease.