Am J Psychiatry 1988; 145:955-959
Copyright © 1988 by American Psychiatric Association
A new scale for the assessment of depressed mood in demented patients
T Sunderland, IS Alterman, D Yount, JL Hill, PN Tariot, PA Newhouse, EA Mueller, AM Mellow and RM Cohen
Laboratory of Clinical Science, NIMH, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Twenty-one subjects with clinically diagnosed dementia of the Alzheimer
type were rated on the Dementia Mood Assessment Scale, a new instrument
intended to measure the severity of depressed mood in cognitively impaired
patients. Ratings were based on direct observation and a semistructured
interview of the patient. Interrater reliability was established. There
were highly significant correlations between patients' scores on the
instrument's 17-item depression subscale and their scores on global
measures of depression and sadness. The potential usefulness of this new
scale in assessing the severity of depression in demented patients
longitudinally or under drug treatment conditions is discussed.
