Use of the Brief Smell Identification Test for olfactory deficit in a Norwegian population with Alzheimer's disease.

Aims: Several studies have shown that Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with hyposmia. Olfactory identification may be a cheap and simple additional test in the assessment of early cognitive changes. The sense of smell is influenced by factors such as experience and culture and the aim of the present study was to assess the validity of the Brief Smell Identification Test (B-SIT) in distinguishing patients with AD from healthy gender and age-matched controls in a Norwegian population.

[Cholinesterase inhibitors in Norway--effectiveness and side effects in clinical practice].

Background: Naturalistic trials are needed to evaluate whether the results obtained in randomised trials of cholinesterase inhibitors (CEI) can be generalised to clinical practice. We conducted two studies in Norway to address this issue.

Material And Methods: We included patients with dementia from 16 centres in Norway who had received treatment with a CEI until November 2001 (study 1, n = 1,167, retrospective case review) or who came to the first evaluation after onset of treatment (study 2; n = 252; prospective enrollment).