Review of Outcome Measurement Instruments in Alzheimer's Disease Drug Trials: Psychometric Properties of Behavior and Mood Scales

Abstract

This article reviews the reliability and validity of eight scales for behavior and mood problems that were identified in a comparative analysis ofAlzheimer's disease (AD) drug trials. The scales are the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale, the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-noncognitive, the Relative's Assessment of Global Symptomatology, the Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease-Behavior Rating Scale for Dementia, the Dementia Behavior Disturbance scale, the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, and two scales for depressive symptoms, the Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia and the Dementia Mood Assessment Scale. This article also examines methodological limitations in the way the published literature has assessed the psychometric properties of these scales. The aim is to help clinicians and potential trial investigators select appropriate measurement instruments with which to assess behavior and mood problems in AD and to assist AD researchers in the evaluation of the psychometric properties of such scales. (J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 2000; 13:181-196).