Journal
JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY NEUROSURGERY AND PSYCHIATRY
Volume 84, Issue 5, Pages 494-498Publisher
BMJ PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1136/jnnp-2012-303526
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Funding
- Medical Research Council
- Motor Neurone Disease Association, UK
- Institute of Social Psychiatry
- European Community's Health Seventh Framework Programme [259867]
- National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Dementia Biomedical Research Unit at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London
- Medical Research Council (UK)
- National Institute for Health Research (UK)
- Alzheimer Society (UK)
- Alzheimer Research Trust (UK)
- Edmund J Safra Foundation (Switzerland)
- Wellcome Trust
- Psychiatry Research Trust
- Wellcome Trust UK
- Department of Health/National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) UK
- Epilepsy Research UK
- UCB Pharma
- GSK
- Abbott Healthcare Products
- Medical Research Council [G0500289, G0500289B, G0900688] Funding Source: researchfish
- MRC [G0500289, G0900688] Funding Source: UKRI
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Background Systematic explorations of language abilities in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are lacking in the context of wider cognitive change. Methodology Neuropsychological assessment data were obtained from 51 patients with ALS and 35 healthy controls matched for age, gender and IQ. Composite scores were derived for the domains of language and executive functioning. Domain impairment was defined as a composite score <= 5th centile relative to the control mean. Cognitive impairment was also classified using recently published consensus criteria. Results The patients with ALS were impaired on language and executive composite scores. Language domain impairment was found in 43% of patients with ALS, and executive domain impairment in 31%. Standardised language and executive composite scores correlated in the ALS group (r=0.68, p<0.001). Multiple regression analyses indicated that scores on the executive composite accounted for 44% of the variance in language composite scores. Conclusions Language impairments are at least as prevalent as executive dysfunction in ALS. While the two domains are strongly associated, executive dysfunction does not fully account for the profile of language impairments observed, further highlighting the heterogeneity of cognitive impairment in non-demented patients with ALS.
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