- Smart people need to be held to a higher testing standard
if they're to be correctly diagnosed for early signs of Alzheimer's disease,
says a new study.
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- Researchers found raised standards better predicted future
mental decline in intelligent people than did comparing their responses
against normal standards. The finding is reported in the January issue
of Neuropsychology.
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- Past studies have found very smart people have shown
clinical signs of Alzheimer's much later than the general population. Once
they do, they decline much faster.
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- This was thought to reflect their greater mental reserves,
but this study indicates their intelligence might be making it harder to
judge their mental processes.
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- "Highly intelligent elders are often told their
memory changes are typical of normal aging when they are not," lead
author Dorene Rentz, a clinical psychologist with the department of neurology
at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, says in a prepared
statement. "As a result, they would miss the advantages of disease-modifying
medications when they become available."
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- The researchers believe the findings also could help
people at the other end of the scale, with lower standards reducing the
chance that someone with below average intelligence would be misdiagnosed
as demented.
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