Lexico-semantic features in early stage Alzheimer's disease: influence of rivastigmine and comparison with elderly controls.

Abstract

Alzheimer’s disease is a devastating and disabling disease and will affect more and more people. Cholinesterase-inhibitors try to slow down this process, but its efficacy on language performance has barely been investigated. This study compares the lexico-semantic performances of 20 healthy elderly controls with 20 mild-to-moderate AD-patients on their spontaneous speech (1) and investigates the influence of 6-months rivastigmine intake these performances in AD-patients (2). Normal and AD- participants showed significant differences on Correct Information Units (CIU), Type-Token Ratio, Brunét’s index and P-rate, with CIU as best discriminator (85%). After at least six months rivastigmine, AD-patients did not show significant differences.