Cognitive impairment in depressed outpatients as measured with the Dementia Checklist: a simple method for primary care and in field research.

The Dementia Checklist is a 12-item dementia rating scale for physicians who, for whatever reason, cannot be specifically trained. It addresses symptoms of cognitive decline that can easily be identified, and that are typical for different stages of cognitive impairment. This allows an easy classification of the severity of dementia. In a first study, the dementia checklist was used in 937 geriatric outpatients who were treated by neuropsychiatrists for depression. All items contribute to the accuracy of measurement (Cronbach's alpha = 0.84). Differences in cognitive impairment depending on age (chi 2 = 51.7; p < or = 0.001) and depression (chi 2 = 47.6; p < or = 0.001) indicate external validity of the dementia checklist and 5.7% of the outpatients were rated as demented. The Dementia Checklist provides a very economical and easy-to-use assessment of cognitive decline.