The assessment of intellectual deficits in Parkinson's disease

The Investigation of nature of intellectual decline in Parkinson's Disease (PD) is plagued by problems such as fatigue effects in lengthy assessments.There is a need for reliable, short, yet comprehensive IQ tests. The purpose of the present study is to establish the utility of the Satz-Mogel short form as an assessment tool in the PD population.

Parkinsonian and elderly control subjects were administered the full WAIS-R or the Satz-Mogel WAIS-R short form. The full WAIS-R scores were rescored to obtain derived Satz-Mogel scores. All subjects received a battery of additional neuropsychological tests.

The Satz-Mogel appears to be a reliable measure of IQ. Score differences between the full WAIS-R and rescored Satz-Mogel showed that the IQ estimate had not substantially changed. Correlations showed that the relative scores were preserved. The Satz-Mogel was compared to other frequently used short forms and was found to be the most reliable assessment of intellectual functioning in the elderly and PD population.