Trends of patient referral to a memory clinic and towards earlier diagnosis from 1985-2009.

Background: It may be assumed that increased public awareness of dementia due to Alzheimer's disease (AD) together with the availability of efficacious treatment will result in diagnostic evaluation at earlier stages of cognitive decline and diagnosis of dementia due to AD at earlier stages.

Methods: All persons that were examined at a university based memory clinic, in Germany, between 1985 and 2009 were included.

Results: In the 3,951 persons identified, linear regression analysis revealed a positive association between Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) score and year of initial examination (yearIE) (β = 0.