Wais Performance of Neurologically Impaired Aged

Abstract

The present study investigated the performance of patients with multi-infarct dementia, dementia due to Alzheimer's disease and vertebrobasilar insufficiency with dementia using the WAIS. Forty-two patients ranging in age from 45 to 85 yr. ( M, 66) were included. Significant differences in cognitive and intellectual performance were found between patients with dementia due to vertebrobasilar insufficiency and multiple-infarctions versus neuronal atrophy of the Alzheimer type. The group with Alzheimer's disease performed significantly and consistently lower on all measures. There were no significant differences between the two cerebrovascular disease groups, even though the multi-infarct dementia group performed consistently more poorly than the vertebrobasilar insufficiency group. A discriminant function analysis classified 74% of the patients correctly based on the individual WAIS scores. A step-wise regression analysis ranked Block Design and Similarities as the best discriminators.