Clinical Features That Predict Potentially Reversible Progressive Intellectual Deterioration

The records of 110 patients with progressive intellectual deterioration were reviewed, to identify any clinical features that might predict the presence of an underlying disease potentially reversible with specific medical, surgical, or psychiatric therapy. The 16 patients in whom the intellectual deterioration was caused by such underlying disorders showed a shorter duration of symptoms and less cortical atrophy on a computed tomographic scan than did patients with idiopathic dementia. The average for the patients with a treatable cause of progressive intellectual deterioration was not significantly different from the average age for patients with idiopathic dementia.