BioPsychoSocial Assessment Tools for the Elderly - Assessment Summary Sheet

Test: Dementia Signs and Symptoms Scale (DSS)

Year: 1994

Domain: Psychological

Assessment Tool Category: Dementia/ Alzheimer’s

Variations/Translations: N/A

Setting: Clinical settings

Method of Delivery: Semi-structured interview conducted with the patient and informant separately. The DSS is administered by a psychiatrist or nurse.

Description: The DSS is a 43 item scale that consists of eight subscales: anxiety, mania,
depression, restlessness, social disruptiveness, aggressiveness, delusions and hallucinations. For each symptom/ behavior the occurrence and severity, within the last month, is recorded. Supplementary questions may be asked to clarify the respondents answer. Responses from both the informant and the patient are recorded on the provided form.

Scoring/Interpretation: Anxiety, mania and depression are graded on a 4 point scale, ranging from 0 (absent) to 3 (severe). Behaviours are scored based on frequency from 0 (absent) to 3 (occurring daily for the last month). Delusions and hallucinations are rated on a similar scale monitoring clarity and frequency from 0 (absent) to 3 (definite and occurring daily for the last month). The examiner takes into consideration both parties responses to the scales and their own observations to make recommendations for appropriate services.

Time to Administer: Approximately 30 minutes.

Availability: Figure 1 in Loreck et al. (1994).

Software: N/A

Website: N/A

Quantitative/Qualitative: Quantitative

Validity (Quantitative): Pearson correlations ranged from +0.49 between the depression scale on the DSS and the depression scale on the Columbia University Scale for Psychopathology in Alzheimer’s diseases (CUSPAD) to +0.94 between the mania scale on the DSS and the total Young Mania Rating Scales score. Overall the DSS has good concurrent validity.

Reliability (Quantitative): Internal consistency ranged from 0.37 for the Hallucination scale to 0.82 for the behavior subscale. The average for internal consistency was 0.60. The inter-rater reliability was excellent, ranging from 0.92-0.99.

References:

Loreck, D., Bylsma, F., & Folstein, M. (1994). The Dementia Signs and Symptoms Scale: A New Scale for Comprehensive Assessment of Psychopathology in Alzheimer’s disease. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 2(1), 60-74.

Comments: N/A