Volume one presents two research papers on the development of neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation in dementia.
The first is a systematic review on the evidence base of direct everyday action rehabilitation in dementia. Aspects of person-centred approach in dementia rehabilitation are adopted in a number of studies but the effects are yet to be investigated more systematically. Whilst studies of errorful interventions reported more consistent evidence of benefits, the category represents diverse approaches and there is a lack of direct comparisons of techniques to evaluate the relative merits. The limitations in the studies quality and in the current review impacted on the generalizability of the results.
The second reports an empirical study of the utility of the Birmingham Cognitive Screen (BCoS) assessment in differentiating the neuropsychological profile between early onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and subcortical ischaemic vascular cognitive impairment. BCoS profiles between a control group (N=47), a AD group (N=30) and a vascular group (N=28) were modelled with binary logistic regression. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed good fit of the models. The identified profiles correspond with the existing understanding of the two disease pathologies
