A questionnaire investigation of anxiety and depression in early dementia.

We report findings on a study of anxiety and depression by questionnaire in 50 patients with mild dementia and 134 control subjects using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Thirty-eight percent of patients and 9% of controls had a possible or probable diagnosis of an anxiety disorder. Possible or probable depression was found in 28% of the patients and 3% of the controls. These rates for the patients were above those in normal populations. All patients and control subjects were tested with the Extended Scale for Dementia (ESD). Neither group showed a significant relationship between depression and ESD scores. In the control subjects there was a negative correlation (P less than .006) between anxiety and cognitive scores, one that was not found in the patients.