Prediction and Prevention of Dementia: New Hope

Aim: In neurology, the differential diagnosis between cognitive and functional cognitive impairment is one of the most complex and diffi cult especially in early stages of the disease. Conversation analysis (CA) study social interaction embracing both verbal and non-verbal conduct in situations of everyday life. Our study aims to evaluate the possibility of using linguistic analysis to support clinical, and test-based diagnoses for the differential diagnosis between cognitive impairment and psychiatric diagnosis resembling dementia. Methods:13 subjects requesting an initial consultation in a Alzheimer Evaluation Unit. A provisional diagnosis through a neuropsychological evaluation, was made at the baseline, after six months (gold standard), and, if necessary, after 12 months. The linguistic analysis was performed in a blind study by a linguist at T0. Patients language was studied at linguistic and conversational level. Results: Linguistic analysis at T0 has shown a correspondence rate with the gold standard diagnosis in 76.9% of cases (sensibility-80%, specifi city-75%, PPV-67% NPV-86%). The correspondence rate between the neuropsychological équipe analyses at T0 with the gold standard was 58.4%.Discussion: The linguistic diagnosis was able to establish the presence of cognitive impairment earlier than the diagnosis made by the neuropsychological équipe. A linguistic cluster of patognomonic phenomenon can lead to a diagnosis with a good degree of reliability, thus a trained linguist is needed. Conclusion: New studies using this methodology, and on larger patient populations are needed in order to confi rm the use of this technique and, if necessary, to refi ne it with the addition of words linked to emotions.