Judgment in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's disease

Capucho, Patrícia Helena Figueirêdo Vale; Brucki, Sonia Maria Dozzi

doi:10.1590/S1980-57642011DN05040007

Abstract

Judgment is the capacity to make decisions after considering available information, contextual factors, possible solutions and probable outcomes. Our aim was to investigate previous research studies regarding assessment of judgment in older adults with different degrees of cognitive impairment. To this end, a search of Pubmed and Lilacs electronic databases for studies published from January 1990 until August 2011 in English, Spanish and Portuguese was carried out. The terms used were "judgment" combined with the terms "dementia" or "Mild Cognitive Impairment" (MCI) or "Alzheimer's disease" (AD). Some studies showed that MCI and AD patients had impaired judgment. There is a lack of specific methods to measure judgment capacity, and data on judgment abilities in older adults with MCI and dementia are scarce. No studies with specific measures of judgment capacity in other dementias were found.

Key words:
judgment; dementia; Alzheimer's disease; Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Resumo

Julgamento é a capacidade de tomar decisões após consideração sobre informações disponíveis, fatores contextuais, soluções possíveis e resultados prováveis. Nosso objetivo foi investigar estudos de pesquisas prévias sobre avaliação de julgamento em adultos mais velhos com diferentes graus de prejuízo cognitivo. Nós realizamos uma pesquisa nas bases eletrônicas de dados Pubmed e Lilacs, de estudos publicados de Janeiro de 1990 até Agosto de 2011, em Inglês, Espanhol e Português. Os termos usados foram "julgamento" combinado com os termos "demência" ou "Comprometimento Cognitivo Leve" (CCL) ou "doença de Alzheimer" (DA). Alguns estudos mostraram que pacientes com CCL e DA tem comprometimento na capacidade de julgamento. Há uma carência de métodos específicos para avaliar julgamento, e dados sobre habilidades de julgamento em adultos mais velhos com CCL e demência são escassos. Não foram encontrados estudos com medidas específicas da capacidade de julgamento em outras demências.

Palavras-chave:
julgamento; demência; doença de Alzheimer; Comprometimento Cognitivo Leve.

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References

Rabin LA, Borgos MJ, Saykin AJ. A survey of neuropsychologists' practices and perspectives regarding the assessment of judgment ability. Appl Neuropsychol, 2008;15:264-273.
Hastie R. Problems for judgment and decision making. Ann Rev Psychol 2001;52:653-683.
Channon S. Frontal lobe dysfunction and everyday problem-solving: Social and non-social contributions. Acta Psychol 2004;115:235-254.
Thornton WJL, Dumke HA. Age differences in everyday problem-solving and decision-making effectiveness: a meta-analytic review. Psychol Aging 2005;20:85-99.
Rabin LA, Borgos MJ, Saykin AJ, Wishart HA, Crane PK, Nutter-Upham KE, Flashman LA. Judgment in older adults: development and psychometric evaluation of the Test of Practical Judgment (TOP-J). J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2007; 29:752-767.
Margrett JA, Allaire JC, Johnson TL, Daugherty KE, Weatherbee SR. Everyday problem solving. Aging in America 2010; 79-101.
Allaire JC, Marsiske M. Everyday cognition: age and intellectual ability correlates. Psychol Aging 1999;14:627-644.
Woods DC, Patterson MB, Whitehouse PJ. Utility of the judgment questionnaire subtest of the neurobehavioral cognitive status examination in the evaluation of individuals with Alzheimer's disease. Clin Gerontol 2000;21:49-65.
Duke LM, Kaszniak, AW. Executive control functions in degenerative dementias: a comparative review. Neuropsychol Rev 2000;10:75-99.
Blanchard-Fields F, Stein R, Watson TL. Age Differences in emotional-regulation strategies in handling everyday problems. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2004;58b:261-269.
Blanchard-Fields F, Mienaltowski A, Seay RB. Age differences in everyday problem-solving effectiveness: older adults select more effective strategies for interpersonal problems. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci , 2007:62b:61-64.
Brand M, Markowitsch HJ. Aging and decision-making: a neurocognitive perspective. Gerontology 2010;56:319-324.
Brandt J, Aretouli E, Neijstrom E et al. Selectivity of Executive Function Déficits in mild cognitive impairment. Neuropsychology 2009;23:607-618.
Beversdorf DQ, Jennifer LW, Fegurson BA et al. Problem solving ability in patients with mild cognitive impairment. Cog Behav Neurol 2007;20:44-47.
Espinosa A, Alegret M, Boada M et al. Ecological assessment of executive functions in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2009;15:751-757.
Farias ST, Mungas D, Reed BR, Harvey D, Cahn-Weiner D, DeCarli C. MCI is associated with deficits in everyday functioning. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 2006;20:217-223.
Kounti F, Tsolaki M, Kiosseoglou G. Functional cognitive assessment scale (FUCAS): a new scale to assess executive cognitive function in daily life activities in patients with dementia and mild cognitive impairment. Hum Psychopharmacol, 2006;21:305-311.
Channon S, Crawford S. Problem-solving in real-life-type situations: The effects of anterior and posterior lesions on performance. Neuropsychologia 1999;757-770.
Grisso T, Appelbaum P, Hil-Fotouhi C. The MacCAT-T: a clinical tool to assess patient's capacities to make treatment decisions. Psychiatr Serv 1997;48:1415-1419.
Marson D, Ingram K, Cody H et al. Assessing the competency of patients with Alzheimer's disease under different legal standards. Arch Neurol 1995;52:949-954.
Janofsky J, McCarthy R, Folstein M. The Hopkins Competency Assessment Test: a brief method for evaluationg patient's capacity to give informed consent. Hosp Community Psychiatry 1992;42:132-136.
Etchells E, Darzins P, Silberfeld M et al. Assessment of patient capacity to consent to treatment. J Gen Intern Med 1999; 14:27-34.
Lai JM, Karlawish J. Assessing the capacity to make everyday decisions: a guide for clinicians and an agenda for future research. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2007;15:101-111.
Lim T, Marin DB. The assessment of decisional capacity. Neurol Clin 2011;115-126.
Cornelius SW, Caspi A. Everyday problem solving in adulthood and old age. Psychol Aging 1987;2:144-153.
Kajanne, A. Structure and content: the relationship between reflective judgment and laypeople's viewpoints. J Adult Dev 2003;10:173-189.
Denney NW, Pearce KA. A developmental study of practical problem solving in adults. Psychol Aging 1989;4:438-442.
Artistico D, Cervone D, Pezzuti L. Perceived self-efficacy and everyday problem solving among young and older adults. Psychol Aging 2003;18:68-79.
Willis SL, Allen-Burge R, Dolan MM, Bertrand RM, Yesavage J, Taylor JL. Everyday problem solving among individuals with Alzheimer's disease. Gerontologist 1998;38:569-577.
Northern California Neurobehavioral Group, Inc. (1988). Manual for the Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Exam. Fairfax, CA: Author.
Loeb, PA. Independent Living Scales. Manual. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation, 1996.
Stern RA, White T. Neuropsychological Assessment Batery: Administration, scoring, and interpretation manual. Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources; 2003.
Revheim N, Medalia A. The independent living scales as a measure of functional outcome for schizophrenia. Psychiatr Serv 2004;55:1052-1054.
Brown LB, Stern RA, Cahn-Weiner DA, et al. Driving scenes test of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) and on-road driving performance in aging and very mild dementia. Arch Clin Neuropsychol 2005;20:209-215.
Brooks BL, Iverson GL, White T. Advanced Interpretation of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery with older adults: base rate analyses, discrepancy scores, and interpreting change. Arch Clin Neuropsychol 2009;24:647-657.
Drane DL, Osato SS. Using the Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination as a screening measure for older adults. Arch Clin Neuropsychol 1997;12:139-143.
Rabin LA, Saykin AJ, West JD, Borgos MJ, Wishart HA, Nutter-Upham KE, Flashman LA, Santulli RB. Judgment in older adults with normal cognition, cognitive complaints, MCI, and mild AD: relation to regional frontal gray matter. Brain Imaging Behav 2009;3:212-219.
Borgos MB, Rabin LA, Koven NC, et al. Assessment of practical judgment in a mixed neuropsychiatric sample using the TOP-J. Proceedings of the 34^th Annual Meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, 2006:228.
Pickens S, Ostwald SK, Murphy-Pace K, Bergstrom N. Systematic review of current executive function measures in adults with and without cognitive impairments. Int J Evid Based Health 2010;8:110-125.
Perneczky R, Pohl C, Sorg C. Impairment of activities of daily living requiring memory or complex reasoning as part of MCI syndrome. Inter J Geriatr Psychiatry 2006;21:158-162.
Wadley VG, Crowe M, Marsiske M et al. Changes in everyday function in individuals with psychometrically defined mild cognitive impairment in the advanced cognitive training for independent and vital elderly study. J Am Geriatr Soc 2007;55:1192-1198.
Zamarian L, Weiss EM, Delazer M. The impact of mild cognitive impairment on decision making in two gambling tasks. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2011;66:23-31.
Burton CL, Strauss E, Bunce D, Hunter MA, Hultsch DF. Functional abilities in older adults with mild cognitive impairment. Gerontology 2009;55:570-581.
Burton CL, Strauss E, Hultsch DF, Hunter MA. The relationship between everyday problem solving and inconsistency in reaction time in older adults. Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 2009;16:607-632.
Karlawish JHT, Casarett DJ, Bioethics JM, Xie SX, Kim SYH. The ability of persons with Alzheimer disease (AD) to make a decision about taking an AD treatment. Neurology 2005;64: 1514-1519.
Okazaki M, Kasai M, Meguro K, Yamagushi S, Ishii H. Disturbances in everyday life activities and sequence disabilities in tool use for Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia. Cog Behav Neurol 2009;22:215-221.
Delazer M, Sinz H, Zamarian L, Benke T. Decision-making with explicit ans stable rules in milg Alzheimer's disease. Neuropsychologia 2007;45:1632-1641.
Sinz H, Zamarian L, Benke T, Wenning GK, Delazer M. Impact of ambiguity and risk on decision making in mild Alzheimer's disease. Neuropsychologia 2008;46:2043-2055.
Willis SL, Allen-Burge R, Dolan MM, et al. Everyday problem solving among individuals with Alzheimer's disease. Gerontologist 1998;38:569-577.
Baird A. Fine tuning recommendations for older adults with memory complaints: using the independent living scales with the dementia rating scale. Clin Neuropsychol 2006;20:649-661.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
Oct-Dec 2011

History

Received
15 Aug 2011
Accepted
20 Oct 2011

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

[1] Rabin LA, Borgos MJ, Saykin AJ. A survey of neuropsychologists' practices and perspectives regarding the assessment of judgment ability. Appl Neuropsychol, 2008;15:264-273.

[2] Hastie R. Problems for judgment and decision making. Ann Rev Psychol 2001;52:653-683.

[3] Channon S. Frontal lobe dysfunction and everyday problem-solving: Social and non-social contributions. Acta Psychol 2004;115:235-254.

[4] Thornton WJL, Dumke HA. Age differences in everyday problem-solving and decision-making effectiveness: a meta-analytic review. Psychol Aging 2005;20:85-99.

[5] Rabin LA, Borgos MJ, Saykin AJ, Wishart HA, Crane PK, Nutter-Upham KE, Flashman LA. Judgment in older adults: development and psychometric evaluation of the Test of Practical Judgment (TOP-J). J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2007; 29:752-767.

[6] Margrett JA, Allaire JC, Johnson TL, Daugherty KE, Weatherbee SR. Everyday problem solving. Aging in America 2010; 79-101.

[7] Allaire JC, Marsiske M. Everyday cognition: age and intellectual ability correlates. Psychol Aging 1999;14:627-644.

[8] Woods DC, Patterson MB, Whitehouse PJ. Utility of the judgment questionnaire subtest of the neurobehavioral cognitive status examination in the evaluation of individuals with Alzheimer's disease. Clin Gerontol 2000;21:49-65.

[9] Duke LM, Kaszniak, AW. Executive control functions in degenerative dementias: a comparative review. Neuropsychol Rev 2000;10:75-99.

[10] Blanchard-Fields F, Stein R, Watson TL. Age Differences in emotional-regulation strategies in handling everyday problems. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2004;58b:261-269.

[11] Blanchard-Fields F, Mienaltowski A, Seay RB. Age differences in everyday problem-solving effectiveness: older adults select more effective strategies for interpersonal problems. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci , 2007:62b:61-64.

[12] Brand M, Markowitsch HJ. Aging and decision-making: a neurocognitive perspective. Gerontology 2010;56:319-324.

[13] Brandt J, Aretouli E, Neijstrom E et al. Selectivity of Executive Function Déficits in mild cognitive impairment. Neuropsychology 2009;23:607-618.

[14] Beversdorf DQ, Jennifer LW, Fegurson BA et al. Problem solving ability in patients with mild cognitive impairment. Cog Behav Neurol 2007;20:44-47.

[15] Espinosa A, Alegret M, Boada M et al. Ecological assessment of executive functions in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2009;15:751-757.

[16] Farias ST, Mungas D, Reed BR, Harvey D, Cahn-Weiner D, DeCarli C. MCI is associated with deficits in everyday functioning. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 2006;20:217-223.

[17] Kounti F, Tsolaki M, Kiosseoglou G. Functional cognitive assessment scale (FUCAS): a new scale to assess executive cognitive function in daily life activities in patients with dementia and mild cognitive impairment. Hum Psychopharmacol, 2006;21:305-311.

[18] Channon S, Crawford S. Problem-solving in real-life-type situations: The effects of anterior and posterior lesions on performance. Neuropsychologia 1999;757-770.

[19] Grisso T, Appelbaum P, Hil-Fotouhi C. The MacCAT-T: a clinical tool to assess patient's capacities to make treatment decisions. Psychiatr Serv 1997;48:1415-1419.

[20] Marson D, Ingram K, Cody H et al. Assessing the competency of patients with Alzheimer's disease under different legal standards. Arch Neurol 1995;52:949-954.

[21] Janofsky J, McCarthy R, Folstein M. The Hopkins Competency Assessment Test: a brief method for evaluationg patient's capacity to give informed consent. Hosp Community Psychiatry 1992;42:132-136.

[22] Etchells E, Darzins P, Silberfeld M et al. Assessment of patient capacity to consent to treatment. J Gen Intern Med 1999; 14:27-34.

[23] Lai JM, Karlawish J. Assessing the capacity to make everyday decisions: a guide for clinicians and an agenda for future research. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2007;15:101-111.

[24] Lim T, Marin DB. The assessment of decisional capacity. Neurol Clin 2011;115-126.

[25] Cornelius SW, Caspi A. Everyday problem solving in adulthood and old age. Psychol Aging 1987;2:144-153.

[26] Kajanne, A. Structure and content: the relationship between reflective judgment and laypeople's viewpoints. J Adult Dev 2003;10:173-189.

[27] Denney NW, Pearce KA. A developmental study of practical problem solving in adults. Psychol Aging 1989;4:438-442.

[28] Artistico D, Cervone D, Pezzuti L. Perceived self-efficacy and everyday problem solving among young and older adults. Psychol Aging 2003;18:68-79.

[29] Willis SL, Allen-Burge R, Dolan MM, Bertrand RM, Yesavage J, Taylor JL. Everyday problem solving among individuals with Alzheimer's disease. Gerontologist 1998;38:569-577.

[30] Northern California Neurobehavioral Group, Inc. (1988). Manual for the Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Exam. Fairfax, CA: Author.

[31] Loeb, PA. Independent Living Scales. Manual. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation, 1996.

[32] Stern RA, White T. Neuropsychological Assessment Batery: Administration, scoring, and interpretation manual. Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources; 2003.

[33] Revheim N, Medalia A. The independent living scales as a measure of functional outcome for schizophrenia. Psychiatr Serv 2004;55:1052-1054.

[34] Brown LB, Stern RA, Cahn-Weiner DA, et al. Driving scenes test of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB) and on-road driving performance in aging and very mild dementia. Arch Clin Neuropsychol 2005;20:209-215.

[35] Brooks BL, Iverson GL, White T. Advanced Interpretation of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery with older adults: base rate analyses, discrepancy scores, and interpreting change. Arch Clin Neuropsychol 2009;24:647-657.

[36] Drane DL, Osato SS. Using the Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination as a screening measure for older adults. Arch Clin Neuropsychol 1997;12:139-143.

[37] Rabin LA, Saykin AJ, West JD, Borgos MJ, Wishart HA, Nutter-Upham KE, Flashman LA, Santulli RB. Judgment in older adults with normal cognition, cognitive complaints, MCI, and mild AD: relation to regional frontal gray matter. Brain Imaging Behav 2009;3:212-219.

[38] Borgos MB, Rabin LA, Koven NC, et al. Assessment of practical judgment in a mixed neuropsychiatric sample using the TOP-J. Proceedings of the 34^th Annual Meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, 2006:228.

[39] Pickens S, Ostwald SK, Murphy-Pace K, Bergstrom N. Systematic review of current executive function measures in adults with and without cognitive impairments. Int J Evid Based Health 2010;8:110-125.

[40] Perneczky R, Pohl C, Sorg C. Impairment of activities of daily living requiring memory or complex reasoning as part of MCI syndrome. Inter J Geriatr Psychiatry 2006;21:158-162.

[41] Wadley VG, Crowe M, Marsiske M et al. Changes in everyday function in individuals with psychometrically defined mild cognitive impairment in the advanced cognitive training for independent and vital elderly study. J Am Geriatr Soc 2007;55:1192-1198.

[42] Zamarian L, Weiss EM, Delazer M. The impact of mild cognitive impairment on decision making in two gambling tasks. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2011;66:23-31.

[43] Burton CL, Strauss E, Bunce D, Hunter MA, Hultsch DF. Functional abilities in older adults with mild cognitive impairment. Gerontology 2009;55:570-581.

[44] Burton CL, Strauss E, Hultsch DF, Hunter MA. The relationship between everyday problem solving and inconsistency in reaction time in older adults. Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 2009;16:607-632.

[45] Karlawish JHT, Casarett DJ, Bioethics JM, Xie SX, Kim SYH. The ability of persons with Alzheimer disease (AD) to make a decision about taking an AD treatment. Neurology 2005;64: 1514-1519.

[46] Okazaki M, Kasai M, Meguro K, Yamagushi S, Ishii H. Disturbances in everyday life activities and sequence disabilities in tool use for Alzheimer disease and vascular dementia. Cog Behav Neurol 2009;22:215-221.

[47] Delazer M, Sinz H, Zamarian L, Benke T. Decision-making with explicit ans stable rules in milg Alzheimer's disease. Neuropsychologia 2007;45:1632-1641.

[48] Sinz H, Zamarian L, Benke T, Wenning GK, Delazer M. Impact of ambiguity and risk on decision making in mild Alzheimer's disease. Neuropsychologia 2008;46:2043-2055.

[49] Willis SL, Allen-Burge R, Dolan MM, et al. Everyday problem solving among individuals with Alzheimer's disease. Gerontologist 1998;38:569-577.

[50] Baird A. Fine tuning recommendations for older adults with memory complaints: using the independent living scales with the dementia rating scale. Clin Neuropsychol 2006;20:649-661.

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