0-TESTO COMPLETO.pdf - Fondazione Santa Lucia

Sezione III: Attività per progetti
disease; newly treated hypothyroidism; 2) comorbidity of primary psychiatric
or neurological disorders (e.g., schizophrenia, major depression, stroke,
Parkinson disease, seizure disorder, head injury with loss of consciousness)
and any other significant mental or neurological disorder; 3) known or suspected
history of alcoholism or drug dependence and abuse during lifetime; 4)
MRI evidence of focal parenchymal abnormalities; 5) MRI evidence of neoplasm.
The patients included will carry out an in depth anamnestic evaluation
and a diagnostic\categorical evaluation for “ MCI subtype ” (i.e., pure amnestic
MCI-single domain, amnestic MCI multiple domain, nonamnestic MCI single
domain, and nonamnestic MCI multiple domain). In addition, categorical
neuropsychiatric disorders of “ depression ”, “ psychosis ”, and “ apathy ” will
be assessed. The modified criteria for Major Depressive Disorder characteristic
of Alzheimer Disease of Olin et al. will be used for assessing depressive disorder,
the criteria for psychotic disorder of dementia of Jeste and Finkel will
be used for assessing psychosis, and the criteria for apathetic disorder of
Starkstein et al will be used to categorize the presence of apathy.
Dimensional neuropsychiatric symptom severity will be measured with a
battery of tests including: Neuropsychiatric Inventory-12 items, CERAD Disforia,
and Dementia Apathy Interview and Rating. The age at onset of each
behavioural disturbance and the first memory deficit will be accurately evaluated.
Moreover, To obtain a global index of cognitive impairment, we will
administer the MMSE.
The Mental Deterioration Battery (MDB) and other cognitive task will be
used to assess individual cognitive domains. The MDB is a standardized and
validated neuropsychological battery, comprising seven neuropsychological
tests from which eight performance scores can be derived. Of the eight total
scores, four pertain to the elaboration of verbal stimuli and four to visuospatial
materials. The tests will be selected to provide information about the functionality
of different cognitive domains such as: verbal memory (MDB Rey’s
15-word Immediate Recall and Delayed Recall); short term visual memory
(MDB Immediate Visual Memory); logical reasoning (MDB Raven’s Progressive
Matrices’ 47); language (MDB Phonological Verbal Fluency, and MDB
Sentence Construction); simple constructional praxis (MDB Copying Drawings,
and MDB Copying Drawings with Landmarks). In addition to the MDB,
we administered additional tests in order to assess other cognitive domains
such as: long-term visual memory (Delayed Recall of Rey-Osterrieth picture);
complex constructional praxis (Copy of Rey-Osterrieth picture); and frontal
abilities of attentive shifting and control (Stroop test Interference time).
A subsample of 30 MCI patients will be treated with 12 weeks cognitive
rehabilitation. The cognitive training will be centered on memory (learning
strategies, spaced retrieval, noun-face association, use of external aids) and
attention (selective, sustained, divided attention).
If needed, the rehabilitative treatment will be tailored to the patient need,
according to the main functional impairment.
New rehabilitation techniques using touch screen or graphic tablet aided
computerized tasks are being developed, with the aim of being available for
718 2009