Rapidly-administered short forms of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—3rd edition

• Published in: Archives of clinical neuropsychology Vol. 22; no. 8; pp. 917 - 924
• Main Authors: Donnell, Alison J., Pliskin, Neil, Holdnack, James, Axelrod, Bradley, Randolph, Christopher
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Ltd 01-11-2007; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Case-Control Studies; Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases; Dementia; Female; Humans; Intelligence - physiology; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Nervous System Diseases - diagnosis; Neurology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics. Diagnostic aid systems; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Short form; Techniques and methods; Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale; Wechsler Scales - standards; Wechsler Scales - statistics & numerical data; Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale; Short form; Dementia; Abbreviated form; Human; Nervous system diseases; Intelligence; Neuropsychological test; Psychometrics; Cognition; Cerebral disorder; Senile dementia; Central nervous system disease; Adult; Degenerative disease; Elderly
• ISSN: 0887-6177; 1873-5843
• DOI: 10.1016/j.acn.2007.06.007

Although the Wechsler Full Scale IQ (FSIQ) is a common component of most neuropsychological evaluations, there are many clinical situations where the complete administration of this battery is precluded by various constraints, including limitations of time and patient compliance. These constraints are particularly true for dementia evaluations involving elderly patients. The present study reports data on two short forms particularly suited to dementia evaluations, each requiring less than 20
min of administration time. One of the short forms was previously validated in dementia for the WAIS-R [Randolph, C., Mohr, E., & Chase, T. N. (1993). Assessment of intellectual function in dementing disorders: Validity of WAIS-R short forms for patients with Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's disease.
Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 15, 743–753]; the second was developed specifically for patients with motor disabilities. These short forms were validated using the WAIS-III normative standardization sample (
N
=
2450), neurologic sample (
N
=
63), and matched controls (
N
=
49), and a separate mixed clinical sample (
N
=
70). The results suggest that each short form provides an accurate and reliable estimate of WAIS-III FSIQ, validating their use in appropriate clinical contexts. The present data support the use of these short forms for dementia evaluations, and suggests that they may be applicable for the evaluation of other neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders that involve acquired neurocognitive impairment.