Date of Award

Summer 8-2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Program/Concentration

Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology

Committee Director

Robin Lewis

Committee Director

Jennifer Flaherty

Committee Member

Michael Stutts

Committee Member

Richard Handel

Committee Member

Matt Judah

Committee Member

Hamid Okhravi

Abstract

An estimated 5.8 million Americans suffer from dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), with that number projected to grow to 13.8 million by mid-century (Alzheimer’s Association, 2019). Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) describes the stage between normal cognitive decline that comes with aging and a dementia diagnosis (Peterson, 1999). Due to a lack of a cure or particularly effective treatment, a major goal of treatment is to focus on improving quality of life (Budson & Solomon, 2016). An early and accurate diagnosis can address this goal in a variety of ways. Despite the high prevalence and immense amount of research in MCI and AD, there is still no individual assessment measure that can definitively diagnose either. A multimodal approach must be implemented by clinicians and investigated by researchers to ensure early and accurate diagnosis. This study used multivariate logistic regression to analyze how two neuropsychological screening tests, two brain structures’ volumes, and an eye-tracking outcome all contributed to the diagnostic process. The two screening tests were the only unique contributors to the predictive model, and there was only slight evidence to suggest that the multimodal approach using these measures improved accuracy of diagnosis.

Comments

he VIRGINIA CONSORTIUM PROGRAM IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY is a joint program of Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk State University, and Old Dominion University.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/6tbv-wv04

ISBN

9798678108241

ORCID

0000-0002-5723-0654

Share

COinS