The investigation of dementia: the results in 100 consecutive admissions.

One hundred patients admitted consecutively to the Neuropsychiatric Institute, each with the provisional diagnosis of dementia, were investigated. The diagnosis was confirmed in 81 patients. Amongst these, a potentially reversible cause was found in eight patients. Eleven patients were found to have potentially treatable pseudodementing illnesses and eight patients were found to have a chronic organic brain syndrome not characterized by intellectual deterioration. It is recommended that all patients with provisional diagnoses of dementia be investigated early in the course of their illnesses, in the anticipation of finding a reversible dementia or a treatable pseudodementing illness. The investigations can be conducted more efficiently in specialist units, staffed with neurologists and psychiatrists, and having easy access to pathology, neuroradiology, nuclear medicine and computerized axial tomography facilities.