Dementia ‘Ref Flags’ Rather Than Screens

Screening for dementia without symptoms, unless there is a suspicion of a problem, may lead to negative consequences, U.S. and British researchers found.

Dr. Malaz Boustani, of the Indiana University School of Medicine and colleagues at the University of Kent and the University of Cambridge in England said possible harms of dementia screening could be: stigma, loss of long-term care insurance, emotional dislocation for both the individual and family and resources’ shifting from other health problems.

Primary care physicians should focus on dementia red flags rather than routinely screen individuals with no dementia symptoms just because they’ve reached a certain age.

There currently is no accurate screening test and we would be faced with an unacceptable number of false positives and false negatives, Boustani said in a statement.

If we focus on dementia red flags we will be identifying individuals who will have a very high probability of having dementia and be able to focus our resources, including diagnostic testing, on these people.

Red flags for dementia include: medication adherence problems, more than seven prescribed medications, agitation, multiple falls and more than two hospitalizations or emergency department visits in the past year, Boustani said.

The findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.