International Psychogeriatrics
Volume 15, Supplement 1 - 2003
General Measures of Cognition STEVEN H. FERRIS
ABSTRACT. A general cognitive performance battery is needed as a primary outcome in vascular
dementia clinical trials. Because there is considerable overlap between vascular dementia and
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the pattern of cognitive impairment, a reasonable approach to
developing an optimal vascular dementia battery is to begin with a widely used AD measure and
improve its sensitivity to the cognitive domains that are more prominent in vascular dementia.
Thus the VaDAS-cog has evolved, which comprises the ADAS-cog with additional frontal lobe
subtests covering attention, working memory, executive function, and verbal fluency. Validation
of this new cognitive instrument will be supported by its successful use in vascular
dementia clinical trials
