Questions About Dementia with Lewy Bodies, Personal Beliefs and Real Performance for Financial Capacity Tasks

Abstract

Introduction

Although cognitive impairment occurs early in the course of dementia with Lewy bodies, little is known about DLB and its impact on more complex civil capacities, such as financial capacity.

Method

Three patients (mild DLB, severe DLB and MCI in DLB) were examined. Their total scores and (sub)scores on a financial capacity test revealed below normal (more than 1.5–2 SDs below) performance in contrast to cognitive intact elders (see Table 1).

Results

This is in contrast with their personal beliefs of financial capacity, which reflect a tendency to overestimate their level of financial capacity as recorded on a Likert-scale questionnaire.

Conclusions

The findings prompt a need for further research for an emerging problem in forensic psychiatry, that takes the form of the question: do all DLB patients – even in the stage of MCI – have the capacity for financial transactions?

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Table 1