ABSTRACT
The paucity of theory presents no deterrent to the abundance of practice in the assessment of cognitive disorders in the elderly. In the assessment of cognitive functioning in the elderly, there are at least four ways in which a model or theoretical approach is useful for differentiating among the disorders affecting the elderly. Neuropsychology plays an especially important role in the diagnosis of disorders in the elderly whenever cognitive functioning has been compromised. The medical and psychiatric history included marked anxiety presenting early and consistently in the disorder, outstanding memory disorder with the eventual development of a dementia, seizures, abnormal EEG, and a secondary carcinoma in the lung. The stage model has the potential for confirming or disconfirming a diagnosis because deviations from the predicted pattern of regression would signify that a different disorder is present.
