Is it depression or is it Alzheimer's? Why multi-tasking could hold the answer

The early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease can often be mistaken for those of depression. As a result of this many people with early Alzheimer's often go undiagnosed and miss out on treatment. Researchers from the University of Edinburgh compared the multi-tasking ability of 89 Alzheimer's patients, people suffering from long-term depression, and healthy elderly people with no memory impairment. They found that the people with Alzheimer's performed significantly worse than the other two groups suggesting that tests of the ability to do more than one thing at once could be a useful way of telling apart people with Alzheimer's from people with depression.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6525302/Multi-tasking-could-help-differentiate-depression-and-early-Alzheimers.html