Diagnosis of dementia in individuals with intellectual disability.
Use the 1997 criteria to diagnose dementia in adults with ID the same way every time.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Keel et al. (1997) wrote a position paper. They asked, "How can doctors spot dementia in adults with intellectual disability?"
The team offered a checklist. It gives every clinician the same steps to follow. No new data were collected.
What they found
The paper gives a shared recipe for diagnosis. It does not report patient results. It is a map, not a scoreboard.
How this fits with other research
Sturmey et al. (1996) came first. That paper told staff how to care for adults after dementia is found. Keel et al. (1997) filled the gap before care: it shows how to make the diagnosis itself.
Matson et al. (2013) looked back at 114 tools that can carry out the 1997 recipe. Their long list proves the field kept building on H et al.'s idea.
Martin et al. (1997) counted many dementia cases in Dutch homes. That count shows why a shared checklist like H et al.'s was needed.
Why it matters
If you assess adults with ID, use the 1997 criteria. One shared checklist cuts down on guesswork and helps teams agree. It also lets your data line up with later studies that used the same rules.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The foremost impediment to progress in the understanding and treatment of dementia in adults with intellectual disability is the lack of standardized criteria and diagnostic procedures. Standardized criteria for the diagnosis of dementia in individuals with intellectual disability are proposed, and their application is discussed. In addition, procedures for determining whether or not criteria are met in individual cases are outlined. It is the intention of the authors, who were participants of an International Colloquium on Alzheimer Disease and Mental Retardation, that these criteria be appropriate for use by both clinicians and researchers. Their use will improve communication among clinicians and researchers, and will allow researchers to test hypotheses concerning discrepancies in findings among research groups (e.g. dementia prevalence ranges and age of onset).
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 1997 · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2788.1997.tb00692.x