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The significance of subjective memory
complaints and their effect on prognosis has been an area of
controversy in the literature, and two recent studies appear
to continue this tradition. In a prospective study of elderly
people living in Maastricht, Netherlands (Mol et al 2006),
subjects with baseline MMSE scores . >/-24 were followed
for up to six years. In this study, subjective forgetfulness
was not associated with changes in a variety of neuropsychological
test scores compared to participants without complaints. Ercoli
et al (2006) conducted a small but elegant prospective
study of cognitively intact elderly individuals using PET. The
authors attempted to correlate subjective memory complaints
with changes in neuropsychological test scores and regional
glucose metabolism over two years. Similar to the previous study,
there was no relationship between subjective memory complaints
and changes in neuropsychological function, though PET results
appeared to tell a different story. Declines in regional glucose
metabolism in a variety of important brain regions were significantly
greater in subjects with memory complaints. Based on their results,
these authors suggest that subjective memory complaints should
be taken seriously.
Do subjective memory complaints predict
cognitive dysfunction over time? A six-year follow-up of the
Maastricht Aging Study
(INT J GERIATR PSYCHIATRY 2006;21:432-441)
MARTINE E.M. MOL,
MARTIN. P.J. VAN BOXTEL,
DICK WILLEMS,
JELLE JOLLES
maastricht, THE NETHERLANDS
Perceived loss of memory ability
and cerebral metabolic decline in persons with the apolipoprotein
E-IV genetic risk for Alzheimer disease
(ARCH GEN PSYCHIATRY 2006;63:442-448)
LINDA ERCOLI, PhD,
PRABHA SIDDaRTH, PhD,
SUNG-CHENG HUANG, PhD,
KAREN MILLER, PhD,
ET AL,
los angeles, ca
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