Assessment of functional abilities of Alzheimer's subjects

The functional communicative abilities of 17 patients with moderate to severe dementia, primarily of the Alzheimer's type, were evaluated with a special screening test. The test included verbal and visual subtests. Results showed a significant correlation between the verbal and visual test results. There was a significant difference between the results of the two PAC-D (Pragmatic Assessment of Communication in Dementia) tests that were administered five-months apart. Nurses' evaluations of patient behavior were obtained at the time of the administration of both the first and second PAC-D tests. Changes in the nurses' evaluations and changes in the PAC-D scores were compared. Thirteen of 17 comparisons were in agreement. The four comparisons that were not in agreement involved patients in advanced stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The findings suggest that the PAC-D is sufficiently sensitive to demonstrate the deterioration of the functional communicative abilities of patients used in this study.