Memory Complaints Associated with Seeking Clinical Care

Diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment relies on the presence of memory complaints. However, memory complaints are very frequent in healthy people. The objective of this study was to determine the severity and type of memory difficulties presented by elderly patients who seek for clinical help, as compared to the memory difficulties reported by subjects in the community. Assessment of subjective memory complaints was done with the subjective memory complaints scale (SMC). The mini-mental state examination was used for general cognitive evaluation and the geriatric depression scale for the assessment of depressive symptoms. Eight-hundred and seventy-one nondemented subjects older than 50 years were included. Participants in the clinical setting had a higher total SMC score ( ) than those in the community ( ). Item 3 of the SMC, Do you ever forget names of family members or friends? contributed significantly more to the variance of the total SMC score in the clinical sample (18%) as compared to the community sample (11%). Forgetting names of family members or friends plays an important role in subjective memory complaints in the clinical setting. This symptom is possibly perceived as particularly worrisome and likely drives people to seek for clinical help. 1. Introduction Since the original description of the disease by Alois Alzheimer [1], memory difficulties are considered the initial and the most prominent and typical symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. More recently, the detection of elderly subjects with mild cognitive impairment and a high risk of progression to Alzheimer’s disease also relies on the presence of memory complaints [2], and, in proposed revised criteria for prodromal AD, like the Dubois criteria [3], the report by patients or informants of memory decline remains part of the core diagnostic features. Memory complaints thus represent an important symptom in clinical practice. On the other hand, when specifically asked for, people in the community frequently report memory difficulties. In fact, not only elderly but also young subjects may have an unfavourable opinion about their memory capabilities [4]. Using a formal scale, the subjective memory complaints scale (SMC; [5]), as much as 75.9% of people report at least minor complaints when answering to the first general question Do you have any complaints concerning your memory? (SMC1) [4]. The significance and clinical implications of the frequent report of memory difficulties in the community setting are not clear. In a meta-analysis, the presence of memory complaints was more frequent in