Psychometric Assessment Of Anxiety Syndromes In Dementia Of Different Types

Abstract

The lack of generally accepted criteria for assessing anxiety frequency and severity, the resulting methodological problems, as well as the insufficient knowledge of its clinical manifestations makes relevant the development of algorithms for its detection and assessment, as well as the creation of psychometric tools for this remain urgent tasks of gerontopsychiatry. In this article the review of advantages and disadvantages of the scales used is given. Scoring systems, based on symptoms and signs occurring two weeks prior to the interview; assessment scale for anxiety states in dementia patients; and rules for the psychometric assessment of anxiety in dementia are presented. Conditions and rules for the further development of specialized scales are discussed and recommendations given. The authors have proposed a more reliable and clinically valid system for quantifying each of the symptoms. This considers the degree of influence of the symptom on the behavior of the subject, the frequency of occurrence of the symptom (daily or not every day), its stability (throughout the day or only part of it), which makes it possible to more accurately assess the clinical significance of each component of the anxiety syndrome.