Thomas, P.

Beyond the neuro-psychiatric effects of specific dementia therapeutics, support given to patients and their informal carers is at stake today. One of the reasons why patients suffering from dementia are unable to remain at home is because their families are faced with so many difficulties. The study seeks to find out why elderly demented people are put into homes and what influences this decision.

GPcog is a screening tool for dementia in the aged. It consists of nine cognitive items and six items assessing the daily living instrumental activities by an informal carer. This study was aimed to assess the reliability of the French version of the GPcog in a psychogeriatric population. Two hundred and eighty inpatients from a short-term psychogeriatric ward, with or without dementia, were examined. Scores on GPcog, MMSE and on a five-word memory test for screening dementia were compared to the final diagnosis of dementia.