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The British Journal of Psychiatry 167: 663-667 (1995)
© 1995 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

Psychiatric symptoms associated with dementia in older people with learning disability

S Moss and P Patel
Hester Adrian Research Centre, University of Manchester.

BACKGROUND. This paper describes a study of non-cognitive features of dementia in a population of 105 people over 50 years of age, with learning disability. METHOD. The study involved psychiatric assessment using the Psychiatric Assessment Schedule for Adults with a Developmental Disability (PAS-ADD), a semi-structured psychiatric interview developed specifically for people who have learning disability. Dementia was diagnosed using a combination of informant interviewing and observation of cognitive change over a three year period. RESULTS. Sample members with definite dementia had higher levels of sleep difficulty, hypersomnia, irritability, inefficient thought, loss of interest and anhedonia. Discriminant function analysis showed that non-cognitive features could help discriminate between definite and probable cases. CONCLUSIONS. Results support the previously reported observation for the general population that cognitive and non-cognitive features are only weakly related. The study suggests that psychiatric symptom information may be useful in screening for dementia in people with learning disability.


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