ADAS-Cog
The Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog) is a brief neuropsychological assessment used to assess the severity of cognitive symptoms of dementia. It is one of the most widely used cognitive scales in clinical trials{{cite journal |author= Connor, D. J. |author2= Sabbagh, M. N. |name-list-style= amp |title= Administration and Scoring Variance on the ADAS-Cog |journal= Journal of Alzheimer's Disease |volume= 15 |issue= 3 |pages= 461–464 |year= 2008 |doi= 10.3233/JAD-2008-15312|pmc= 2727511 }} and is considered to be the “gold standard” for assessing antidementia treatments.{{cite journal |author= Kueper, J. K. |author2= Speechley, M. |author3= Montero-Odasso, M. |name-list-style= amp |title= The Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale (ADAS-Cog): Modifications and responsiveness in pre-dementia populations. A narrative review |journal= Journal of Alzheimer's Disease |volume= 63 |issue= 2 |pages= 423–444 |year= 2018 |doi= 10.3233/JAD-1709}}
The ADAS-Cog is one half of the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale (ADAS), which also contains a non-cognitive subscale (ADAS-Noncog), which includes 10 tasks which assess mood and behavioural changes which may occur in Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.
The ADAS-Cog consists of 11 tasks:
- Word Recall Task
- Naming Objects and Fingers
- Following Commands
- Constructional Praxis
- Ideational Praxis
- Orientation
- Word Recognition Task
- Remembering Test Directions
- Spoken Language
- Comprehension
- Word-Finding Difficulty
Different versions
Since its original creation in 1980s there have been many alternate versions of the ADAS-Cog created for various reasons. A review found 31 modified versions of the ADAS-Cog, these include:
- ADAS-Cog-IRT: Uses the standard 11 items from the ADAS-Cog but calculates the score based on item response theory. Using this method each question in the test is given a different value based on the difficulty, which is determined by how frequently it is answered correctly or incorrectly by a large reference group of participants.{{cite journal |author= Balsis, S. Unger |author2= A. A., Benge |author3= J. F. |author4= Geraci, L. |author5= Doody, R. S. |name-list-style= amp |title= Gaining precision on the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognitive: A comparison of item response theory based scores and total scores. |journal= Alzheimer's & Dementia |volume= 8 |pages= 288–293 |year= 2015 |doi= 10.1016/j.jalz.2011.05.2409}}
- ADAS-Cog Plus: Developed to be more responsive to the early stage deficits seen is mild cognitive impairment. It includes the standard ADAS-Cog with additional tests to assess executive function and day-to-day function.{{cite journal |author= Skinner, J. |author2= Carvalho, J. O. |author3= Guy, G. P. |author4= Thames, A. |author5= Zelinski, E. |author6= Crane, P. K. |author7= Gibbons, L. E. |name-list-style= amp |title= The Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive-Plus (ADAS-Cog-Plus): An expansion of the ADAS-Cog to improve responsiveness in MCI |journal= Brain Imaging and Behavior|volume= 6 |issue= 4 |pages= 489–501 |year= 2012 |doi= 10.1007/s11682-012-9166-3|pmc= 3873823 }}
- VADAS-Cog: The VADAS-Cog is a variant the ADAS-Cog adapted to assess people with vascular dementia. It consists of the standard ADAS-Cog with additional measures for attention, working memory, executive function and verbal fluency.{{cite journal |author= Ferris, S. H. |title=General measures of cognition |journal= International Psychogeriatrics|volume= 15 |issue= S1|pages= 215–217 |year= 2005 |doi= 10.1017/S1041610203009220 |doi-access= free }}