LAUSR

Certain personality disorder (PD) diagnoses are related to the development of dementing disorders. There is a higher rate of comorbidity of PD in samples of patients with dementing disorders compared to healthy controls, which can lead to difficulties during the diagnostic process. The present study seeks to identify the neurocognitive correlates of those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s dementia (AD) compared to PD, potentially aiding in differential diagnosis. Data was collected as part of a large assessment outpatient clinical practice. The data contained 580 participants who came to the clinic with a variety of referral questions (e.g., neurological diagnosis, personality functioning, ADHD assessment). To measure cognitive functioning, participants were administered the WAIS-IV. Participants included 43 people diagnosed with AD and 18 with PD. Subtest scores for participants diagnosed with AD were lower than participants with PD. We adjusted the mean level difference using vocabulary. Using regression, we pulled out the variance associated with vocabulary as it is not susceptible to cognitive decline. Block design was significantly different for the two groups even after controlling for vocabulary (r-square = .06; p = .017). Matrix reasoning was significantly different for the two groups even after controlling for vocabulary (r-square = .09; p = .005). The differential diagnosis of PD and dementing disorders is important, and thus these findings are important in beginning to understand the cognitive patterns in those with AD and PD. Past research has not controlled for intellectual functioning. However, additional research utilizing larger sample sizes and an extensive test battery is necessary.