The utility of EEG in dementia: a clinical perspective

Background: Despite being simple and cheap, the EEG is not often used in clinical practice. Methodology: Literature search using PUBMED and Medline. Results: Quantitative EEG can help to identify mild dementia and mild cognitive impairment and can increase diagnostic accuracy when used with other imaging techniques. EEG helps differentiate organic from functional brain disease and predict response to cholinesterase inhibitors and is central in the diagnosis of Creutzfeldt Jacob disease. The accuracy of EEG may be greater than that of CT or MRI scans alone. Discussion: Quantitative EEG may save on specialist interpretation time and enable more routine use of EEG in diagnosis and care. More widespread use of EEG's is indicated. Agreement on the parameters that are best measured on qEEG is still awaited. Copyright (c) 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.