Family members and close friends are more sensitive to early
signs of Alzheimer’s dementia than traditional screening tests,
according to researchers at Washington University School of
Medicine in St. Louis. Doctors often evaluate a person who is
having memory problems by testing them with a variety of
cognitive tasks, such as recalling a list of words or comparing
shapes of objects. Washington University researchers developed a
different approach. The two-minute Ascertain Dementia 8 (AD8)
questionnaire relies on a friend or family member who knows the
person well, known as an informant, to evaluate whether
cognitive changes have caused the individual to have
difficulties in performing everyday activities. In the new
study, published online in the journal Brain, scientists
validated the AD8 by checking to see if it could highlight
individuals who had biological indicators, or biomarkers, for
Alzheimer's disease, such as abnormal levels of certain factors
in the spinal fluid or positive brain scans for Alzheim