Primary or depressive dementia: Clinical features

In 1979, Wells tabled a list of ‘major clinical features’ which he found most useful in distinguishing dementia due to organic disease from dementia occuring in the context of psychiatric conditions like depression. This article reviews recent findings on the most commonly accepted items of this list and, for several of them, concludes that the evidence is controversial. Newer aspects are then briefly considered which, when validated in longitudinal studies, may add to the clinician's range of implements during diagnostic workup.