End-stage dementia spark of life: reliability and validity of the "GATOS" questionnaire.

Background: Fl oor effects are present in most dementia assessment tools as dementia progresses and the in-depth assessment of patients considered more or less on vegetative state is questionable.

Objective: To develop a questionnaire (the "Gatos Clinical Test-GCT") for the assessment of end-stage demented patients.

Methods: Five hundred patients with dementia of various causes and an MMSE score between 0 and 2 were enrolled in the study.